General discussion

Hello, 

I'm a student trying to identify some old specimens from the Grant Museum, two species of Tabanids recorded as Tabanus macfarleanei and Tabanus hongkongiensis. I know this is a group for British diptera but I wondered if anyone knows of a good ID key for East Asian diptera?

Maria

Over the last few months, I have been using a pair of fine tipped brass-handled dissecting needles made by Boyd Barr. They are firmly established as my go-to implements for dissecting smaller flies. So far they have proved very effective for dissecting Hilara, Lonchaeidae, Chloropidae and Pipunculidae. Compared with the average Dipterist’s usual arrangement of a fine micropin pushed into the end of a matchstick or similar, the needles appear somewhat too robust for fine work, but in practice they are every bit as accurate as the smallest of micropins (size A for instance).

Hi all,

for the last 6 years i have been trying to identify many different truly aquatic fly larvae, i have collected what books i can such as the immature fly larvae yellow book and a book by Johannsen on fly larvae but i still feel like there arent any resources to go further than subgenus for some and genus for many. Quite saddening for me as i think the larvae are brilliant, i have got to a point where i have sent photos to people at the NHM and various others and never had confirmation other than family.

For many years I have used the straightforward MapMate for producing county distribution maps.  Now that it seems to be longer in existence I have been looking at alternatives.   Unfortunately the mapping systems available now, although being very comprehensive, do not seem to be easily used by non-nerds like me!  

Any suggestions about a user friendly mapping system that could be a replacement for MapMate?

Ray Morris

I came across a pair of hoverflies apparently mating on our allotments. Has anyone encountered behaviour like this? I only managed to take one image before both flew off

I was checking the current names for a series of Tachinidae records in VC55 when I found that the October checklist did not seem to have the genus Trixa in the Tachinidae.

However, the species names were there (page 420) but under Prosena!. 

Has the genus name Trixa been omitted accidentally?

Ray

Would be interested to know who is working on Lasius nest mounds at Yealand Lancs, perhaps members of Dipt. Forum.

I have the issue of not getting species that I place on iRecord looked at by anyone who can verify them (not unique to Diptera). In addition I have, as an example, records of Lepiseodina (ex Telmatoscopus) tristis (Meigen, 1830) that species does not appear on iRecord. County recorders look at iRecord for county records and then ask if the species are verified. I have to reply no.

I have the issue of not getting species that I place on iRecord looked at by anyone who can verify them (not unique to Diptera). In addition I have, as an example, records of Lepiseodina (ex Telmatoscopus) tristis (Meigen, 1830) that species does not appear on iRecord. County recorders look at iRecord for county records and then ask if the species are verified. I have to reply no.