Posted by Kahis on 12-08-2006 13:36
#12
Jan Willem wrote:
About where to find Opomyzidae, my experience is that you can find them almost everywhere in locations with grass. However you must either be patient like Nikita explains or go with your net very low through the vegetation. In my experience in The Netherlands I hardly ever collect Opomyzidae by hand before May. However pitfall traps show that they can be found in early March till late December. I have no records from January and February but I know other people interested in Opomyzidae have seen Opomyzidae in copula in February! Some species are just hardly collected by hand, but very easily by means of pitfall traps.
This is also my experience, but I'd add that open fields are better than dense forests for opomyzids. Of ocurse some species may prefer open and others canopied habitats, but for the largest number of specimens open ground is definitely the place.
I have to slightly disagree on the collecting time with you: the best time to find opomyzids in Finland is clearly late summer (ie. right now), but sweep-netting in early spring before new green shoots appears can also be fruitful. Early summer is pretty much dead opomyzid-wise. I have sweep-netted
Geomyza tripunctata in late March, which is
really early in Finland. Think half a meter of snow on the ground and only hottest southward-opening slopes open.