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Hi,

I read LordV's thread http://www.dipter...ad_id=3853 with images of a Simuliidae sp. And someone else held it for a Hybotidae sp. As I did aswell:o untill I looked at the antennae.
So I was thinking: would it be an idea to make (e.g. in a sticky thread or otherwise) a list (could be just text or even better maybe images) that sums up all the common visual mistakes made by people who aren't experts?
When this would become a reality it could look like this:
Hybotidae sp (image) - Simuliidae sp (image)
...
So if someone thinks: "Ah it's Hibotidae" and looks it up in the list, he immediately will be confronted with the fact that the first thought isn't always the best.

If you make it sticky than it grows (hopefully) by itself, and when we have enough to make it really interesting , it might be converted into a separate article or menuchoice.
I didn't think too much about pro's and cons, because I think some other people should give their opinions first. I hope you catch my drift?
Would it work?:)

Cheers,

Andr

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Hi Andr? Perhaps it is best to, initally at least, learn as we go along, gathering the common errors (which we all make) together later. One interesting thing is that experienced dipterists tend to see what they expect - see The Levan Principle in the Lounge. Beginners tend to look more carefully at every fly. For this reason they very often find rare or new flies. Beginners luck:p. I try to put helpful (I hope) comments in where I can- see http://www.dipter...ad_id=3842
This is useful for me too since For many years I have worked mainly on Hymenoptera though I began with Diptera. I am therefore revisiting my own early (and very many) mistakes.
Slainte (Cheers) Robert

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Hi Robert,

I appreciate all the good comments you and others give. They help a lot! But we tend to make avoidable mistakes (and I think many especially beginners make the same mistakes). So every means that helps identifying species to at least family level could be useful.
Maybe because it's because I'm a graphic designer by profession that I tend to look at the general "jizz" as the americans say. And than a mistake like in the Simuliidae-Hibotidae link is easily made.

Andr?

P.S. Is Slainte perhaps Gaelic?

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I once suggested a simple a photo guide, but that apparently wasn't a good idea ... Any guide to help identify family, genus or species from photos would be appreciated, but I suspect there is too much work compiling it.

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... too much work for the few of the diptera.info visitors that actually knows how to distinguish the differences, that is.

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Well I've made my own private photoguide using images of others. Off course I cannot (alas) make it public (rights and stuff) but it really helps in some cases, but it's a lot of work. Thousands of images, layout etc.
But what I meant was a thread that will build up over time. Everytime that an instance like my example occurs, ayone could put the details in the sticky thread (or any other way that might work).
Before getting into detail as how to go about it, we should think of the mere idea itself.
Andr