Diptera.info :: Identification queries :: Diptera (adults)
 Unknown fly
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| mvuijlst |
Posted on 31-10-2004 20:29
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Member Location: Gent, Belgium Posts: 19 Joined: 31.10.04 |
I feel silly for asking--this looks like a really common animal--but I have no idea what its exact name is:![www.zog.org/blog/20040828_125857_DSC6409[1].jpg](http://www.zog.org/blog/20040828_125857_DSC6409[1].jpg) Larger version here: http://safari.zog...SC6409.jpg -- Michel Vuijlsteke http://safari.zog... |
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| Paul Beuk |
Posted on 31-10-2004 21:04
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 Super Administrator Location: Netherlands Posts: 19403 Joined: 11.05.04 |
It is a sphaerocerid fly, one of the species usually associated with dung of larger animals (horse, catle, sheep). Probably a species of Coproica but I will check.
Paul - - - - Paul Beuk on https://diptera.info |
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| mvuijlst |
Posted on 31-10-2004 21:26
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Member Location: Gent, Belgium Posts: 19 Joined: 31.10.04 |
It's really incredible how many flies take a bucket of well-rotted plant material for animal dung  Thanks! -- Michel Vuijlsteke http://safari.zog... |
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| Paul Beuk |
Posted on 01-11-2004 13:12
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Super Administrator Location: Netherlands Posts: 19403 Joined: 11.05.04 |
Well, I think a bucket with rotten plant material with some added water left in the rain is not different from fresh cow pads. Thoracochaeta zosterae is a sphaerocerid which is particularly known from beaches where the larvae live in rotting see weed. The species is also found inland along rivers, etc., but much scarcer. I found them in a bucket which had a lot of glass tubes with some agar at the bottom in it. I was just waiting for the agar to become soft enough to clean the tubes and I left the bucket outside in the sun. From unknown distance (but the rive Rhine about 5 km away) flies must have located the bucket and deposited eggs. Paul - - - - Paul Beuk on https://diptera.info |
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| mvuijlst |
Posted on 01-11-2004 13:57
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Member Location: Gent, Belgium Posts: 19 Joined: 31.10.04 |
Paul Beuk wrote: Well, I think a bucket with rotten plant material with some added water left in the rain is not different from fresh cow pads. Yes, exactly. That's what I was going for. It even smells like a cow pad. It made my day when I found first one, and then a swarm of Scathophaga stercoraria on the bucket. http://safari.zog...SC6350.jpg http://safari.zog...SC6352.jpg Thanks again for the ID. And I understand now why the animal looked familiar: I've probably seen quite a lot of them at the seaside when I was younger and we lived there during the summer months. Edited by mvuijlst on 01-11-2004 14:01 -- Michel Vuijlsteke http://safari.zog... |
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| Paul Beuk |
Posted on 01-11-2004 14:11
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Super Administrator Location: Netherlands Posts: 19403 Joined: 11.05.04 |
Those would have been Coelopidae, the true see weed flies. These are similar in size or slightly bigger than the sphaerocerid fly of which you posted the image. Thoracochaeta are quite small, more like small Drosophilidae (similar to Scaptomyza palida, e.g.). Paul Paul - - - - Paul Beuk on https://diptera.info |
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