---

Location: About 80 km NW of Stockholm, Sweden
Date: 2007-08-18
Habitat: Pear on the ground in garden.

I don't know if there are blue Neomyia cornicina as there are blue and green Neomyia viridescens. If there are, this might be a male Neomyia cornicina or ... something completely different :) Neomyia seems to have a very sharp vein bend for a Muscidae species.

Edit: Changed subject (Neomyia sp?)
Edit: Changed subject (Calliphoridae)

---

Another view.

---

No, Calliphorida
Nikita

---

Ahh, ok, thank you Nikita! B)

---

I think Calliphora uralensis - no distinct vittae, lower calypter darkened to rim.

---

Thank you very much Susan. You are our Calliphoridae expert. Is the ID safe enough for the gallery?

---

Crex you are making me nervous - I am still just learning Calliphoridae. It is clearly not C vicina, and I think that is useful. But it has some reddish hairs on the beard and behind the head, but it does not seem to have mostly red hair - C uralensis does sometimes have some red hairs, just as C vomitoria can have some black. Without a full lateral view and maybe a front on view (to see facial dusting) in perfect lighting I don't feel I can state categorically it is not C vomitoria. How about putting it in the gallery as Calliphora cf uralensis and see if we are challenged :p

---

Thanks again Susan. I didn't intend to scare you ;) Unfortunately I don't have full front or side views :(

I guess Calliphora uralensis is a smaller species than C. vicina and C. vomitoria because my fly seems not to be so heavy (sturdy) as the other two. Also it doesn't have the big chin the other two have. It feels more like a Muscidae to me, but I only look at the pictures. I don't know the bristles and veins as you do.

---

They are all much the same size, but they can also all vary enormously in size. Females will lay eggs on a carcass for many days, until there isn't a single morsel of meat left on it. This means that the eggs laid on day 1 hatch into maggots that get to eat as much as they can stuff in, and then emerge as big fat adults. Eggs that are laid days later will not hatch to the same abundant food supply and as a consequence the resultant flies will be less well nourished and smaller or stunted. Those unlucky enough to be from eggs laid right at the end of the process probably actually run out of food and die before pupating.

Good easy to spot clues to this fly being Calliphora sp are the combination of very sharply bending M vein, metallic blue body and the darkened lower calypter (aka squamae).

---

Ok, a Calliphora it is. A pity I didn't take more photos of it ... it seems you can never take enough shots :(

Fauna Europaea states these are found in Sweden:
- Calliphora genarum (Zetterstedt 1838)
- Calliphora loewi Enderlein 1903
- Calliphora stelviana (Brauer & Bergenstamm 1891)
- Calliphora subalpina (Ringdahl 1931)
- Calliphora uralensis Villeneuve 1922
- Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy 1830
- Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus 1758)

I wonder what literature one should use to learn more about Calliphora ...

---

Rognes, Fauna Scandinavica Blowflies.

Terrific book, works even in Siberia !!


Theo

---

...and then again, it might be Bellardia - I've just noticed it looks like it has an appendix on Cu. Crex has a point about the 'chin' too. Maybe those red hairs are an artefact. A single strong pv on T1 and looks like might have distinct discal bristles on tergite 4 leads to B viarum, but who knows really...

I give up :(

---

Thanks for trying Susan. I appreciate it. Here is a better view of the veins.

---

I've just got this book:D
But I'm not ready to answer yet (give my a year;))
But Bellardia has blackish thorax and greenish abdomen, doesn't it?
But Melinda is bluish as this fly, not?
Nikita

---

Well, I think this distinction is rather a rule of thumb. I think Bellardia can have thorax and abdomen both metallic, either blue or green. I know all the texts use the blue for Melinda and green for Bellardia distinction, but it seems to me that sometimes it is easier to ignore that character because it can cause a dead end with the key. I think these colours are difficult because what one person will call green another will call blue, and being metallic only compounds the problem. Anyway, now you've got Rognes you'll be the new Calliphorid star in no time. I won't have to spend all my time scratching my head - I'll just ask you :p