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Dear All,

I wonder if anyone has ever had any experience rearing Platystoma spp. I believe Platystoma seminationis occurs in Europe but I am not sure how common it is nor its distribution.

If anyone has any information or contacts of people they think may be able to help I'd be very grateful.

Thanks
Ted

ted.morrow@ebc.uu.se

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I guess nobody has. If you have any data on its biology or larval morphology, they are certainly new, and you are very welcome to publish them, and I'd gladly review your ms.

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OK, perhaps some more general questions then with a view to collecting from the wild.......

Is Platystoma seminationis a common species in northern Europe?

What kind of habitat does it occur in?

Cheers
Ted

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Platystoma at all prefer stony or grassy open areas well warmed with the sun, but I have no idea if it ever was found in Northern Europe. Please have a look at my DB on FaunaEuropaea. As I remember, it occurs in England, but hardly northward of it.

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Here is a snippet, for what it is worth. David Clements, the organiser of the UK Picture-winged Flies Recording Scheme, wrote short descriptions of all his species in his first newsletter in 1997. For P. seminationis he wrote: dry grasslands, hedgerows and scrub, usually in calcareous districts. Larvae possibly associated with decaying vegetation. Moderately common and widespread.

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Thanks for your replies and the information/descriptions of their occurrence!

From Chinery (Insects of Britain and Western Europe) seminationis is apparently distributed fairly widely in the UK (a filled triangle) and can be seen on "rank vegetation....rarely attracted to flowers...breeds in decaying matter".

I am not so sure they will be so abundant in Sweden but I will spend my summer finding out!

Cheers
Ted