---

Please identify 081_ID flies. Slovak Republic, Malá Fatra-Terchová. Thank you very much for your help. Best regards! Fote date: 02.04.2011.

---

It looks like Siphona ingeriae, Tachinidae.

---

Erikas thank you very much.

---

Well spotted, Erikas !


Theo

---

Which features make it S.ingeriae? Long tarsal claws? :)

---

I see several characters, including long tarsal claws, distinctly vittate thorax, entirely dark abdomen, partly darkened all femora and others. I cannot see anterior preapical seta on the second femur, that characterizes this species, but this could be the reaseon of bad focus. By the way, it is the most abundunt species of the maculata group!

---

Very interesting - here it is incredibly rare. I seem to only catch S.geniculata, cristata or maculata here :(

---

'the most abundant species' !?
That explains a lot ! It is incredibly rare here as well.
So don't worry, Chris.


Theo

---

Yes, one of the biggest problems with the British Siphona is that collectors are highly unlikely to see anything other than the 3 commonest species and geniculata is by far the commonest species of them all. So improving the key and making it easier to spot the rarer species (including plenty of good secondary features) is something I am very keen to do :)

---

I have to side with neprisikiski on this one: Siphona ingerae is not particularly rare in Finland, in fact it is among the more common Siphonas during its mid-spring flight time.

No comments on the identification of the Siphona in the pictures from me, it's been a while since I last looked at these very frustrating tachinids. I usually just give up after a while and send my material to specialists to be determined, sigh. With 15 species in my reference collection I am still unable to sort them out with any confidence (except a few species, S. ingerae included).

---

At least in my Malaise traps it is much more common than Siphona maculata itself. It is not the first time, when I hear about rarity of common species their in the West. In one Malaise trap from a suitable place that was exposed all season I usually obtain about 10 species of this genus, the most abundant are Siphona pauciseta, S. setosa, but S. genuculata is very common only in the western part of the country.

---

I'd love to see more of the rare species - I am sure the familiarity would make it a little easier to split them. My problem here is that the rare stuff is so very rare in reference collections that I am never sure whether the material has been identified correctly :S

EDIT: I just checked ... I have seen precisely zero ingerae :D

---

Here in the west, we are terrible in well developed quiet grasslands, which is the reasons that we are preforming so poor on Dexia, Prosena, Gonia (to a less extent) and species with similar habitat preference. This was not so bad some 50 years ago, I once pubished (in dutch) on the matter.
I think Siphona ingerae might fit in this picture (?), since it is a grassland species (?)

Theo

---

Just checked my own specimens of S. ingerae and it isn't very demanding here. Maybe the common theme is small openings in forests (but then again, that describes pretty much every place in Finland that isn't not IN a forest :)). The localities include the lawn of my parents summer house, marsh/bog meadows under a power line surrounded by full grown spruce forest, a dry meadow/house garden, a small riverside meadow and the margin of a small wheat field in mixed forest. Nothing fancy at all.

---

Grrr :P