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Found quite late 03_09_11 in mid-Wales, any help appreciated, quite a beastie this one!

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2

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3

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At first I thought Hubneria (!), but then I remembered Exorista grandis - the only UK Exorista with hairy eyes and it is recorded for Wales. Wait for other's opinions though:)

Steve

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Looks like a Carcelia to me :)

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or maybe its Carcelia with dark legs, doing id's from photos is hard:D
Steve

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aargh, Chris beat me to my correction:@

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Well, there are only a few genera with eyes that large ... Carcelia/Senometopia (hairy eyes) and Thecocarcelia (bare eyes) :)

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Thanks for the tips on ID I’ve had a look through the gallery and have come up with the following:
Would be grateful for any additions or corrections

Sub Genus_Carcelia
6 species

Carcelia atricosta
No information

Carcelia bombylans
Discounted: No yellow dusting esp. on thorax
- What is the colour of the basicosta in this species? I get the impression from a posting by Matt Smith that’s it’s not black?
Carcelia gnava
Discounted- orange sides patches on T3 and no black bristles

Carcelia lucorum
Looks good :)

Carcelia puberula
Discounted- orange sides patches on T3, tibiae orange-black

Carcelia rasa
Discounted-Tibiae orange-black

Sub Genus_Euryclea
1 species
Carcelia tibialis
Discounted- orange wing bases, orange hairs on occiput, t3 with orange patches

Senometopia
3 species

Senometopia excisa
t3 with orange patches

Senometopia intermedia
No information

Senometopia pollinosa
Bristle pattern on abdomen different

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Body colour (especially presence of orange abdominal side patches) is a bit variable but the dusting colour and colour of the humeral callus is fairly stable. I would agree that this doesn't like bombylans or puberula ... things like gnava/atricosta/laxifrons are very rare (laxifrons only occurs around Brown-tail moth). My guess would be lucorum too ... based on look & rarity :)

But Carcelia really do need checking under a microscope because they are not the easiest genus ;)

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Crikey these Tachinids have big eyes!!

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Thanks Chris and Larry

Another difficult genus!
Have you ever seen Carcelia atricosta?

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I have 1 Carcelia atricosta but the identifications of Carcelia require close examination ... male genitalia and frons/eye width ratios are pretty reliable :)

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Thanks Chris

Do you have any photos of Carcelia atricosta anywhere?, just looked on the new TRS!

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Not yet but they look pretty much the same as the others in their group - they can only really be confirmed reliably on male genitalia and very careful measurement of the frons width ;)

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It is a Carcelia, though the tibiae are pretty dark, if you look closely, they are reddish indeed.

It does resemble C. lucorum, given the discal setae.
I would not know why this species would be so rare in UK, its host is not (Arctia caja).

Theo

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Thanks Theo

I had no idea it was rare, I wondered about the discal setae

Out of interest what are frons/eye width ratios of atricosta and lucorum, should be possible to discount one of them from the photos here?

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I think there's a little confusion here about "rarity". When Chris said his determination was aided by rarity he meant lucorum is one of the least rare Carcelia - ie lucorum is one of the most common Carcelia in the UK:)

Steve

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Yes, sorry if there was any confusion ... lucorum is about the commonest Carcelia in the UK. C.atricosta is one of the rarest ;)

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ah, my mistake.

It can not be atricosta, given the discal setae (or seta-like hairs) on tergites. Given what you have in the UK, it should be lucorum.


Theo

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Thanks Theo
I feel confident to name it now as such :)