Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Golden Dung Fly - Scathophaga stercoraria

Maybe the first time ever recorded in my garden, this female was potted from a fencepost near the fish-baited bottle trap. Wonder if, like a sparrowhawk at a birdfeeder, she was waiting to snatch anything of a suitable size that came too close.

Reminds me of a time when I accidentally potted one with a small fly in the same tube in Uig Bay, Skye. An interesting, but grim, spectacle was provided as the scathophagid sucked the juices out of its hapless room-mate.


Wednesday, 25 March 2020

Opetia nigra - Dalgety Bay, 23.iii.20

Opetia nigra, swept from woodland floor in Ross Plantation among a collection of small flies. Previously encountered same location 27.x.18



Monday, 16 March 2020

Diastata nebulosa, Dalgety Bay - Ross plantation

Diastata nebulosa, f.
Dalgety Bay, Ross Plantation
14.iii.2020
Swept from damp woodland floor

A lovely little fly swept from wet woodland in Ross Plantation, and a new family for me - Diastatidae. New to the county too.

Diastata nebulosa (Fallen)



Wednesday, 11 March 2020

Gymnomus caesius (Scoliocentra caesia) at Cullaloe Hills

In 1.5m elevated bottle trap - fish-baited. Handsome son-of-a-gun. Look at those beautiful golden palps.



Monday, 9 March 2020

Moss Morran (Mossmorran?) - Campsicnemus curvipes

A nice little Doli from Mossmorran, 6.iii.20


Cullaloe LNR weekend flies

Some nice flies at the weekend, even in a small sample

Palloptera scutellata (Rush Flutter Fly) was beaten out of spruce on Saturday - new to me and to the reserve.


On Sunday the chironomid Anatopynia plumipes (Fries) was swept over the spillway.




Also new to the reserve were the muscid  Coenosia lacteipennis and the fruit fly Drosophila subobscura

Wednesday, 4 March 2020

German Sphaeroceridae resources

http://www.spessart-fliegen.de/diptera/sphaeroceridae/sphaeroceridae.html

Opacifrons humida at Dalgety Bay, 03/02/2020

A few small flies were swept around the edge of the bay and the pond margin. Leptocera fontinalis and Lonchoptera lutea were featured along with the ephydrid Parydra quadripunctata.

However, new to me and the second location for Fife was Opacifrons humida (as NBN and the key but in the new British list Pseudocollinella humida). This is a sphaerocerid which is so dusted it's almost olivaceous. It has prominent pre-sutural acros and three pairs of DCs.

Habitus

3 DCs, pre-sutural acrostichals

Wings of O.humida and L.fontinalis

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Syrphidae in VC85

A remarkable graphic from NBN which suggests that no Syrphidae of any species have ever been recorded at Loch Leven (??!!)


This surely can't even be possible, can it?

Certainly identifies a large hole where >100 species ought to be

Dalgety Bay also has zero species. Hopefully an upload to NBN from HRS, or even iRecord, could clear up that picture somewhat.