Sorry you've had trouble with this. We're not aware of a problem with the website, so if you follow the steps given on the Help page under "Recommended method for adding images" it should work. Once the file has uploaded you need to scroll down and click the "Save" button. Could you try again and let me know exactly how far you get, and if possible take a screenshot if something goes wrong?
I hope you been able to access Stuart's key via the link the Tony provided, but if not the same key is now available from our members' page.
Yes, I did access the key via Tony's link. Now I also have the other resources - just what I needed. Thank you!
I agree with Martin's identification. The only other British contender is rufibarbis whose face is the same brown or slightly golden colour all over, but albiceps has a few short but obvious setae on the mid and hind femora (almost absent in rufibarbis). You cannot see another good character, which is the rather undistinguished ventral hairs on all the femora in this species, but which in rufibarbis are clearly longer (up to half the femora depth) and more upright and often pale. And, as Fonseca says, the front coxa hairs are black, at least on the outer face (not 'entirely' as he incorrectly says), compared to all yellow and much longer in rufibarbis.
All my albiceps (and rufibarbis) females have rich dark brown dusted frons, not a hint of silver.
H.albiceps is mainly found in Scotland (but we have it on Dartmoor) so Islay is spot on.
Thanks Martin, a new species for me, and one that was great fun to watch skimming over the dark peaty water in the company of whirligig beetles and pond skaters.
I've got a related question as I'm a zoology graduate quite new to Diptera and so I'm not sure where to start.
I recently caught a Phyto discrepans which had emerged seemingly out of no where from one of my tarantula enclosures (I'm a spider guy), a woodlouse must have found it's way in. This inspired new interest in flies but I have no idea whether Rhinophoridae fits into one of the recording schemes, and if so where? Any general advice on getting started appreciated.
Hi TJ. If you have not done so already, join the Dipterists Forum. Only £20 a year. Best way to get into flies. In answer to your specific question about Rhinophoridae I don't think there is a specific recording scheme (but my knowledge may be out of date). They key out alongside Calliphorids, which do have a recording scheme, easily accessed via the Facebook Group page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2329537373958831/
Neither Muscidae nor Rhinophoridae currently have a recording scheme, but records for these families can be added to iRecord, and will be made available to a scheme if one gets established in future. In the meantime, records of Diptera not covered by a scheme are being shared from iRecord to the NBN Atlas - these records will mostly be unverified in the absence of a recording scheme, but the data can be seen and used, bearing in mind that there are likely to be some erroneous records included.
Typo error in my heading - it should have read Sphaeroceridae, aas it does in my text.
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Many thanks to Howard Bentley (former chair of Dipterists Forum) who replied to me via email to suggest genus Hydrotaea and give me some pointers. With his help I've returned to the keys, and it seems to key cleanly to Hydrotaea militaris. There is a lovely mirror-like shiny patch on the upper parafacial that I couldn't get to show up on the photos.
Not a species I've ever seen in my part of inland Britain, and as you may already know the few records available on NBN Atlas and on iRecord are all coastal. However, we should ask Martin Drake to check the scheme records (the Dolichopodidae recording scheme data is not yet available via NBN Atlas).
It's an Aphrosylus alright - the massive hooked proboscis ('beak') is a give-away. The raptor/celtiber pair are easily muddled in females, which your is, but it's one of this pair (not the tiny ferox or mitis). I gave a new key to both sexes in E&D Newsletter No 22, 7-8 (2017) (all newsletters are now downloadable from this site). It's extremely unlikely to be in Herefordshire - all the record in the E&D scheme for all Aphrosylus (except one of my own for mitis that I don't believe!) are coastal. Ray Poulding showed that celtiber feed on barnacles (Poulding, R.H. 1998. The larvae of Aphrosylus celtiber Haliday (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) as predators of the littoral barnacle Chthamalus montagui Southward (Cirripedia, Chthamalidae). Dipterists Digest (Second Series) 5, 70 - 74
Apologies again for not getting the recording shceme data to the NBN, but just checking for this querie I found yet another grid-ref error (Adrian's - I cannot edit it) putting an Aphrosyus well inland. The database is full of such errors.
Apologies Steve, a vital tick box in your membership details had been left unticked. Should be fixed now.
Looks a bit like Lypha dubia to me ... check for small, paired flaps on the hind spiracle PLUS a large pteropleural bristle reaching back almost to the posterior edge of the calyptrae :)
Thanks Chris - you are right, it has both those features. Good to know what it is. Rob
Hi Cathy. First thing to note is how bristly the legs are - this suggests it may not be an acalypterate. Looking at the top of the thorax - there is a well-marked suture running across in front of the wing bases, so this indicates it is a calypterate fly (includes muscids, tachinids, etc.). Hopefully you will now be able to key this to Scathophagidae and use Stuart Ball's excellent key to get it to species.
I'd say not lancifer, which has much darker legs. Either Hydrophoria or Hylemya. In Hydrophoria, the lower squama exceeds the upper in length, in Hylemya, it is the same or narrower. I can't quite judge which from your photos, but you should be able to tell. I am assuming you have a copy of Mike Ackland's keys to Anthomyiidae - this is not a family to identify from on-line images!