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British Parasite Flies (Tachinidae) in Flickr

Submitted by SFalk on

The early spring tachinids are now flying so this is a good point to launch the new Tachinidae on Flickr resource:

Has photos of about 95% of the British species. Species accounts for even more. This is a truly fascinating fly group. Use alongside available keys. Here is some useful blurb:

Parasite Flies (Tachinidae) on Flickr

This resource covers over 95% of the British tachinid species, acting as a virtual museum collection with carefully photographed pinned specimens plus their diagnostic details. Species are presented as ‘albums’ arranged alphabetically within alphabetically arranged genus ‘folders’. For many species, the specimen photos are supplemented with images of living individuals to provide a better impression of what they look like in the field. Within a species album, images are arranged in the sequence of 1) male living, 2) male specimen(s), 3) female living, 4) female specimen(s), 5) locations and 6) host(s), Many of the photos of diagnostic body parts have accompanying footnotes to help explain what is being shown. If you keep clicking on a photo, it will zoom in to the detail, like a microscope. Each species album also has a drop-down species account (click ‘show more’ after the start of the species text in the header area). These accounts describe the appearance and identification of each species, its distribution and ecology, and provide a hyperlink to the NBN map plus any other useful online information. For many tachinids, these are the most detailed species accounts currently available. There is also text (often with hyperlinks) for each genus.

The Flickr feature is most functional when viewed on a PC or laptop but will act as a phone app with reduced functionality and will display medium functionality in an iPad, tablet or Kindle-type device. To compare two or more species (using a PC or laptop with tabs), open the Flickr feature simultaneously in two or more tabs, and then find the most equivalent images of each species. Then click between the images for instant comparisons. This can be very useful for comparing frons widths/head shape, abdominal markings, and wing venation.

 

Hope it is useful! Muscidae next.

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