Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Rearing Platystoma

Posted by tedmorrow on 05-03-2009 17:08
#1

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

Posted by Nosferatumyia on 06-03-2009 07:28
#2

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.

Posted by tedmorrow on 12-03-2009 16:44
#3

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

Posted by Nosferatumyia on 10-05-2009 16:25
#4

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.

Posted by John Bratton on 13-05-2009 13:12
#5

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.


Posted by tedmorrow on 13-05-2009 14:56
#6

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