Ice cream tub bait trap

One family that's doing very well on the 2020 records is the Sphaeroceridae, or lesser dung flies. So far five species have been identified (and two not!). This is a family I have an emotional tie to (yes, really) because it was one of the first monographs (Pitkin, RES) I acquired when I moved out from hoverflies.

Sphaeroceridae
Copromyza nigrina - fish-baited trap
Crumomyia fimetaria - leaf litter
Crumomyia nitida - fish-baited trap
Crumomyia roserii - fish-baited trap
Lotophila atra - leaf litter

Sieving leaf litter is always a good way to pick up a sphaerocerid or two, but a ground-level bait trap seems like a definite winner. The elevated bottle traps don't seem to catch them - I think because these flies mostly don't get very far away from the ground. This is also a good way to pick up Heleomyzidae, of which 3 species have been found in this session using this trap . One of the species was also found in the elevated bottle trap, but all three were in the low-level trap. The trap is jammed up against a ruined wall so it's probably warmer and more sheltered down there too.

Heleomyzidae
Neoleria propinqua
Scoliocentra villosa
Suillia variegata (in leaf litter, not in trap)
Tephrochlamys rufiventris
Heleomyza captiosa (10.3.20)

The trap design

Ice cream tub, fish remnants, cardboard disc

Apart from the flies this trap has yielded about 100 Catops beetles, the only one of which I gen-detted being C.tristis. And boy does it make them crazy - lots of mating pairs. I suspect there may be more than one species of Catops present. Sadly none I've taken have shown signs of fungal infection.

Rot-hole rat-tails

While wandering across a little-visited area of my new patch (Cullaloe Hills, NT1888) I noticed a rot-hole in a sycamore. Fortunately I was sporting gardening gloves for leaf litter sieving and a cursory dip revealed a nice Myathropa florea larva. A further investigation later revealed two more, but nothing additional.

Suillia variegata in the Cullaloe Hills

While sieving leaf litter at the base of a wall I looked over and saw this female Suillia on the ground, which I was able to pot. It's a common Suillia which I've had on all my usual patches (Inverkeithing, Dalgety bay, Cullaloe LNR and now Cullaloe Hills). It will be from woodland in each case.

Erica McAlister on George Verrall, Radio 4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b06fn26f

Lonchaea patens, Cullaloe Hills, NT1888, 11.i.2020

A larva found in a wet pocket of Fraxinus on the 12th January which I initially planned to rear out. However, since I had already examined another lonchaeid larva I decided to compare this one. This one was much easier to determine with the RES Lonchaeidae book, though the other one may also give itself up eventually.

Habitus

Posterior spiracles

Head skeleton and toroidal mouthhooks

Anterior spiracle post KOH application

Various spicules, including anal (bottomlright)

Trichocera parva from Calais Muir - November 2017!

A fly that has waited patiently on a pin for two years:

Crumomyia roserii in Cullaloe Hills

Caught at a fish-baited trap, this little lesser dung fly has yellow-brown tibiae as an "obvious" feature. One previous Fife record from the East Neuk.

Loc: Cullaloe Hills
Grid: NT1888
Date: 08.i.2020
Det.: Crumomyia roserii female

infuscated wings

yellow tibia

pleural dusting pattern is helpful in ID