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Hello all,

I'm interested by Tachinidae and know that there are valuable informations in Mesnil 44-75, larvaevorinae in Lindner, Die fliegen der pala?rktischen region, Teil 64f, thouth this work was not completed

Teil 64g is separeted in three volumes: band X1: Salmaciini; band x2: Phorocerini; band x3: Larvaevorinae

All of these three volumes are about Tachinidae? I've never heard about Salmaciini as a subfamily of Tachinidae. :|

Thank you in advance for your help!

Didier

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Keys of Mesnil in Lindner are usefull if you want to study Tachinidae outside north western of central europe. These books are expensive, difficult to use, out-dated and not complete (Dexiinae and Phasiinae are not included in mentioned volumes, though started in seperate uncompleted volumes).

Salmaciini is old name for Gonia s.l..

For central Europe the key of Tschorsnig & Herting (Die Raupenfliegen Mitteleuropas, 1994) is most usefull, not expensive, nearly up-to-date and complete.

Liekele

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The English version of this key can be downloaded from http://tachinidae...nloads.php

Matt

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Thanks for your answers. I already have Tschornig's key. I agree. It's very clear. I also agree with your opinion about volumes of dfdpr: They are VERY expensive. :(

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Hello all,

Let me reintroduce this thread. When I said that I thought that there is valuable informations in Mesnil I meant that species are described at leight so that it can help you to secure a determination, even if you restrict yourself to north west Europe.

Is it the case?

Thank you in advance for your help! :)

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For Belgium, there is really no need to buy Mesnil.
So I'm not sure what more you want to know.

Moreover, the Phasiinae and Dexiini are missing in Mesnil, present in Tschorsnig and Herting.

Only when you move to Bordeaux or the Alps, you'll need Mesnil.


Theo

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I'd love a copy of Mesnil for studying the wider Palaearctic but it is too expensive for me so I haven't even seen a copy :(

Tschorsnig & Herting is a very good key for central & northern Europe (the main reason we spent a year translating it ;)) but tachinids can be tricky for novices because the keys give you a name, but it can be hard to know if you ended up in the right place because there is often no single feature that is very distinctive about tachinid genera or species - it is always an accumulation of features that gives you the identification.

Unfortunately there isn't an easy answer, except to post photos here for experts to confirm; to take them to show an expert; or to find a local collection that you can go and look at. Also, I have put photos on the http://tachinidae... of as many UK tachinids as I could find so that might help you confirm your identifications :)

Chris R.

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Thank you Chris. Here's what I'm looking for: to be certain of my results. I would like to be certain because the Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences gave me all his undetermined Tachinid material. But I'm rather a beginner!! With Tschorsnig's key I feel confident with genera but not with species. The best way to be certain would be to have a complete description of all Tachinid species. I guess that this ideal situation is not reachable. That's why I wanted to know more about Mesnil's work. Not to buy a copy but perhaps to make a photocopy of it!!! :D

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Hello, I bought the "Salmaciini" book and it´s a real chaos for me, not just because it´s out-dated (I´m beginning to find that as normal in a book) and I´m not quite sure about which species have I got keyed there, but also it arrived without species index!! (just the general one with tribes), and that´s really awful!. All the Lindner´s book I´ve bought by now have a species index at the end of the book before the plates, but it simply jumps from Spallanzania multisetosa´s description to the plates, does anybody know if I can find that index? The book becomes almost useless without it to me (due to it´s out-dated)
Thanks anyway

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I am guessing that the index is in the last "Larvaevorinae" volume in the series (64g. Larvaevorinae - Larvavorini (Tachinini)). I don't have a copy here (still) but that would be my guess why it doesn't have an index in your volume.

I have a scan of the original French manuscript, which is better than nothing - but (with so many margin corrections, no index or figures and missing/duplicated pages) only *just* better than nothing! ;)

I believe that anyone who scans and translates the published Die Fliegen tachinid volumes will be doing tachinid studies a very great favour. As Theo said, there is no reason to have it in northern Europe but as you move south and east you need it's coverage for the extra species. It is out of date (after 20-30 years anything is out of date) but it is the foundation of palearctic tachinid identification and onto this you can apply the latest updated revisions of different genera, such as the recent Phasia one.

Di-dier: this is always a problem with tachinids - you have a name but little confidence because they have so few really distinguishing features that prove you got it right. The authors of these keys all had access to huge collections that they used to compare with new material but for us novices it can be very hard.

I would just recommend that you double-check anything doubtful and trust your skills. Check that your specimen looks roughly like the named photos in the gallery and whenever possible show your specimens to experts like Theo and/or take them to a good national collection where possible. I would be happy to look at anything that you find doubtful if nobody else can help :)

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:) I´ve foundt phorocerini (86e), and larvaevorini (229e), it seems it´s this last one :(, so it´ll wait
http://www.schwei...n-132.html

Thanks again :)

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Yes, I'm afraid it is the same old story ... there are a few people who could (and would love to) complete or update the keys but they are all too busy with other things - usually non-entomological :(