---

Aida Maria Gomez saw the thread about this species a while ago and asked me for more information on the old British records of C. furcata, but her e-mail address isn't working, so I'll put it here and hope she sees it.

KGV Smith (1989, An introduction to the immature stages of British flies, Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 10 (14)) says: "C. furcata has not been recorded in Britain since 1910 when Yerbury found adults at Porthcawl, Glamorgan. Previously he had found adults on a dead donkey, Mount Edgcumbe Park, Cornwall, in April 1889." He speculates that this and other Thyreophoridae may be missed by European entomologists because the flies are usually out at cold times of year.

However, in 1974 (Changes in the British dipterous fauna, pp 371-391 in The changing flora and fauna of Britain, ed. by D.L. Hawksworth) KGV Smith wrote that 12 specimens were taken from Porthcawl between 1903 and 1906.

I don't know why there is the discrepancy in dates. KGV Smith worked in the London Natural History Museum so it is possible he discovered more of Yerbury's old specimens between 1974 and 1989.

The 1974 paper also says the Mount Edgcumbe Park record was of two adults.

Stubbs, AE, & Chandler, PJ (2001, A provisional key to British Piophilidae (Diptera), Dipterists Digest, 8: 71-78) say C. furcata was last seen in Britain in 1906, and that it recently occurred in a donkey graveyard in Cyprus, citing Roger Key pers. comm. Roger works for the government conservation organisation Natural England at their Peterborough headquarters so you might be able to get more details from him.

I guess you have the reference Friedberg 1981 Ent. Scand. 12: 320-326.

That is as much as I know about C. furcata, but you could try Tony Irwin, who said on Diptera.info that it was his favourite fly. If you find out more about the British records I would be inetrested to hear.

Best wishes

John Bratton