Posted by Frank Koehler on 02-10-2006 15:28
#1
Hello, this fly didn?t try to escape when I was taking photos - and I had problems to pick it up ;-) Looking in my poor literature I found to names: Otites formosa and Enthomophthera muscae. Is there only one species "eating" flies? On beetles you can find various species, including undescribed fungi. Best regards Frank
#0062 Germany / Bavaria: Schweinfurt, River Main, VI.2005
Edited by Frank Koehler on 19-10-2006 18:38
Posted by Xespok on 02-10-2006 16:53
#2
Hi,
As for the fly this is Otitidae, but these images do not match O. formosa images on the net (which might be wrong of course.) (Added later: Actually they match quite well with O. formosa at diptera.net. so the other images on the net are likely to have been misIDd.)
There are more than one species of Enthomophtora feeding on Diptera, so the situation is clearly the same as with the entomophagic fungi affecting Coleoptera. The problem is that many of these fungi do not grow without the host so it is not easy to maintain them. (That is why there are so many undiscribed fungi).
For example this fungus has reddish hyphae, if it is not an artifact. E. muscae should have whitish hyphae, So this is probably not E. muscae, but this is impossible to tell without microscopic and most likely DNA analysis.
Edited by Xespok on 02-10-2006 16:59
Posted by Frank Koehler on 02-10-2006 23:23
#3
Thank you very much for your answer, Gabor!
We should describe new fungi ;)
Best regards Frank