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Photographed this yesterday (14 March 2011). Found in a not very happy state on the floor of the conservatory (could have flown in from outside).

Body length: 10mm
General location: Rural farmland, Oxfordshire, S England.

I have tentatively identified this as a tachinid fly, possibly Baumhaueria sp. Any help on getting a positive id would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Basil

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Here is a another image...

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... and another, a closeup of the head.

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Hi Basil - nice fly - it is indeed a tachinid but Baumhaueria isn't British. The wide frons and unusual head shape with no orange markings on the abdomen make it a Gonia picea :) This is a fairly unusual species in England so it would be nice to have the full data, including map-reference of the location. If you'd like to PM me the data then I'll pass that on to my colleague who manages the recording scheme database :)

PS: I live a bit south of you near Reading and have never seen one - perhaps I should get out more this week and check local woodlands :)

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Local grasslands, that would be

Could we get a headshot straight from front and/of a dorsal picture of the last tergites,

just to make very very sure we are not dealing with a melanistic ornata ?


Thanks

Theo

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Hi,

I have sent the specimen to Chris, so he will be able to sort out any issues with the identification.

What exactly is a melanistic ornata? :S

Basil

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Thanks Basil - I will let you know when it gets here :)

Theo just means that G.ornata is a bit variable and occasionally you get very dark (melanistic) ones :)

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OK, I have had a look at the specimen and I am happy that it is Gonia picea ... I have looked at the possibility of a dark ornata but I can't make it fit. :) Either way, it's a very nice record - thanks Basil :)

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I did not mean to imply I suspected it was ornata, I just couldn't tell. And it was pretty early in the year for picea.

Thanks for sorting that out


Theo

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No problem _ I appreciate when you point out these potential ambiguities so it was worth running carefully in the key. But for this specimen things like the T5 dusting just pointed to picea (<0.3x) ... the parafacial vs face width was about 0.6x (male) but a little hard to judge, without some prior experience. :)