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Collected on sheep dung, Moelyci Farm, Tregarth, North Wales, 1 February 2021.

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No antero-ventrals on hind tibia.

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Antepisternum (is that the right word?) half shiny. But the RES Handbook doesn't mention striate area, nor the small oval shiny patch towards top, within the matt area.

Can anyone confirm the id., please?

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Hi John,

This is indeed a Crumomyia and yes, thats the anepisernum. But which Crumomyia I cant say from these photo's.
I call Pitkin, the forbidden book. If you want an ID I suggest you use Norrbom & Kim 1985. If you dont have it, send me a pm.

Kind regards,
Ectemnius

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Thanks for that, though it is worrying - I've used Pitkin and nothing else for sphaerocerids.

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Hi John, Once you get to Crumomyia, if there are 2-3 pairs of av/pv setae on the mid tibia and some tiny setae on scutellum around the basal scutellars that is an easier way of telling in the females.

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Thanks. So does that combination mean nitida?

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Going from memory, other species of Crumomyia (at least in the UK) have a single pair of av/pv on the mid tibia and are missing the tiny setae on the scutellum - it also big in relation to the others, 4-5.5mm. In males there is a large hook like tubercle at the base of femur 3 so that one's easy.

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It does have a pair of antero-ventrals on the middle tibia.

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And it has a few small hairs around the basal scutellary bristle, but they are at the limit of my camera's ability so you might have to use your imagination. Thanks for the pointers.
John

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Hi John & Dave,

Yes, this should be C. nitida. I can see two anteroventral and three posteroventral setae on the mid tibia.

I've sent you a wetransfer with the Norrbom & Kim 1985 paper (its 16MB ). And a e-mail with Rohacek's genera key in Contributions to a Manual of Palaearctic Diptera. Thats still completely up-to-date and I use it a lot.
Unfortunately identifying Sphaeroceridae should be easy, but its not. There is excellent literature out there, unfortunately you need about 160 different papers to correctly identify the European fauna. I'm afraid in Pitkin there are many species missing and mistakes in names and species concepts.
Currently I'm writing a paper with, among others Paul Beuk and David Brice reporting more than 20 new species for the fauna of the Netherlands. Also for the U.K. there is still a lot to discover...

Kind regards,
Ectemnius

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The papers have arrived, thanks very much. If I find anything that doesn't fit, I'll let you know.
John