ChrisR wrote:
Do you have any more angles? I think Aplomya confinis shouldn't have median discal bristles on tergites 3 & 4 but the fly in your photo does have them so I'd suggest it is more likely to be a Phryxe sp. or Epicampocera succincta

ChrisR wrote:
Well, Tachinidae is easy - bluebottle-shaped fly with thick bristles and bent median vein (this rule-of-thumb doesn't work for all of them but it proves the case with flies like this).

Using photos as your primary means of identifying is a very risky business - the gallery is incomplete and unless you know exactly what you are looking for (usually arrangements of bristles and wing venation) then you're likely just to pick a fly that looks superficially like your photo but is very wide of the mark in terms of an ID

On this photo the fly clearly has hairy eyes; nothing much remarkable about the wing venation; and bristles on the edges and the middle of the upper abdominal segments (tergites) so there's a few things it could be. Phryxe would usually have an orange-tipped scutellum with raised apical bristles but I can't see those ... and it does look quite dark-blue in colour which might suggest Epicampocera

As far as angles go you really need to get as many as you can - I usually prefer dorso-lateral because you get a few things in that but you need to see the head, wings, thorax & abdomen pretty clearly

PeterD wrote:
The other good thing I have found in the BC Dipteria guide is the terminology section. Without it I would find it imposible to follow the points made on here.

ChrisR wrote:
quote]
That's true - we have a Glossary on diptera.info too, which can be helpful. I try to keep descriptions simple to novices but it is hard to be precise without using buzz-words every now and then ... and it anyway shows that the subject is a bit more complicated than most people give it credit for

Do you have a link for the BC guide - I'd be interested to read it myself to see what kind of advice it gives

ChrisR wrote:

That's true - we have a Glossary on diptera.info too, which can be helpful. I try to keep descriptions simple to novices but it is hard to be precise without using buzz-words every now and then ... and it anyway shows that the subject is a bit more complicated than most people give it credit for

Do you have a link for the BC guide - I'd be interested to read it myself to see what kind of advice it gives

Roger Thomason wrote:


Andrzej posted the link in Shoutbox on 11.11.09

PeterD wrote:
The pdf doc is at http://www.for.go...62001b.pdf
I am exploring similar links for the other insects I am interesting in.

ChrisR wrote:

Unwin's key to the families of British Diptera might be more appropriate and less complicated than the BC key. I am always a bit wary of using foreign keys because they have to include families that we don't have here and their methods (the path the key takes) reflect this.

Jaakko wrote:
Hi,

From the options Chris listed, I would vote E. succincta as the specimen looks quite blueish-black. However, I couldn't rule out Platymya fimbriata or Eumea sp. either. Nice to see that people are motivated to start learning diptera-families, Peter! As with everything, it takes some effort to start mastering them. I've given up hope with most and try to stick with the interesting ones...

ChrisR wrote:
Out of interest Peter, when did you see this and where in the country? Although we should never try to identify something from rarity, habitat or flight-period, when it comes to photos (which are an inexact science anyway) it can help. Eumea linearicornis was fairly common at the end of summer in my area ... Epicampocera was very common in mid-summer. Platymya fimbriata is uncommon here, in my experience but I collect in a fairly small geographic and habitat range

Getting to grips with Diptera families can be great fun and it's a real eye-opener to the diversity of flies in the British countryside - you will never look at a fly in the same way again! Most people tend to specialize in one family (e.g. hoverflies or tachinids) and so after a few months you tend to get a good feel for what your chosen group looks like and so you don't have to use the family key again ... you just keep in mind the main features that prove you are looking at one of your chosen family and you don't have to worry about what defines everything else, so it isn't as bad as it might seem when presented with Unwin's key

PeterD wrote:
No work has taken place here for more than a year due to the recession. I have found this area full of interesting insects throughout the summer and, even now, can be relied upon to provide me with subjects for photography.

ChrisR wrote:

That's the great irony about brownfield sites - the government & developers think that they are just wastelands but for invertebrates they are a very valuable habitat. In contrast many protected greenfield areas are just agricultural monocultures with little or no wildlife merit. A cynical person might suppose that the protection of greenfield is more about protecting landscapes and less about protecting biodiversity

Zeegers wrote:
Definitely not Aplomhyia and I'd go for Epicampocera as well.
Pales, the other option, has scutellum red in common species.


Theo