Hello!
I'm fairly new to diptera id, and have found the forum's intro to families key really useful. However I sometimes fall at the first hurdle of differentiating calyptrates and acalyptrates. I would love some general tips if anyone has any. I've also attached a photo of one of my classic confusions: does this count as a cleft in the 2nd antennal segment?!
Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
George
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Hi George, I would say that…
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Hi George, I would say that does count as a cleft! Agree that this can be a difficult feature to see. If you can post an image of the whole fly that would be good so we can check that it 'looks right' for a calypterate. Calypterates are usually more bristly than acalypterates, and the wing venation can help pick them out, but there are flies that can be difficult to put into one group or the other so you are absolutely correct to look for these more detailed features such as the antennal cleft, as described in the family key.