Help with identifications, field craft and other topics relating to Diptera
Hi, new to the dipterists forum, hope this post is allowed, and in the right spot.
Saw numbers of lovely Volucella bombylans in my (very wild) garden yesterday, but also photographed two very distinctive looking flies which I can't ID. I try to ID whatever I see and then add to irecord, so would really appreciate any help available.
Not the best photographs, but just enough detail to make out the flies in this close group of around 20 individuals (seen on Chislehurst Common, Kent, ~1.5m off the ground beside an oak) are carrying an object. In some cropped images it looks like another smaller individual and in one it looks held facing backwards.
I found what i hope is a distinctive Cranefly, unfortunately i did not collect a specimen.
I thought it might be Tipula rufia but no dark stripe on the thorax, could it be a Lunatipula sp?
I'm just starting to learn craneflies so any pointers would be helpful.
It was in scrub in a mozaic of chalk grassland, scrub and surrounded by deciduous woodland. seen 12/5/20 it was one of the largish craneflies.
thank you
Sue
Is there enough visible here to id this as A. imbrida? Assuming I'm counting the right ones it seems to have the requisite number of setae on the hind tibia and the 5th sternite looks right to my eyes (again assuming I'm looking at the right bits!) From Rye Harbour NR, East Sussex on the 5th May
Rather mangled specimen which I can't put through the key step by step cos many of the features of the legs are missing. Rather small, length = 4.6 mm. Hairy eyes and long bristles at tip of cercal plate could be Lasiomma seminitidum? Beds. 11 March 2020. Swept from riverside willow.
Hi,
I have collected two small flies from alder / birch woodland (approx 5mm wing length). I was wondering if they are Anthomyiidae.
Any help much appreciated!
Hi folks. I've just joined DF and this is my first post. Apologies for picture quality - I've got a phone and a 40x microscope at my disposal.
This is an Anthomyid from a melon-baited bottle trap in my garden, Barton-upon-Humber (out on 20-4-20, in 1/5/20). I've never had a go at one of these before, but I'm using the key by Ackland, Bentley & Brighton. Its a female and I'm at couplet 6. Is the feature 'a series of widely spaced coarse setae' (and thus making it Fucellia sp.) shown in my photo down the microscope? I'm not sure.
I found this little fly on 29/4/20, it had the general feel of a Chloropidae and i recall it being 4mm but may have been smaller.
Has anyone any pointers as to what it might be? Sorry about image quality but the light was poor.
In terms of habitat in Chalk grassland which has been scraped back to allow re-colonisation. Only a small meadow with scrub at the edges and a lot of Dogs Mercury in the shady edges.
Body length 10mm, found yesterday in my polytunnel. North Derbyshire near upland. Keyed to Appendicia truncata (male) with Belshaw, although the appendix on the median vein seems a bit short. Does this look right? Thanks.
Bit surprised to find this male fly in bottle trap baited with chicken to sample, particulary, Calliphorids. Beds. Suburban garden. Some time between 21 - 30 April 2020. I think it is Anthomyia sp., possible procellaris (although there are a couple of very similar species). Is it possible to confirm ID from these photos please>