Diptera.info

Posted by xylo on 02-03-2011 07:42

According to RES page: they still hold some for ordering. You will find some at abebooks or elsewhere. Schmitz contribution to Lindners Fliegen would be worth to check. More recent articles should be authored by Disney or Brown. The Phoridae Checklist of the Czech Republic and Slovakia might be helpful also...

so long,
xylo

Posted by xylo on 03-03-2011 10:39

Some recent additions I missed before:

Weber, G.; Prescher, S.; Ulefors, S.-O. & Viklund, B. (2007): Fifty-eight species of Scuttle flies (Diptera, Phoridae: Megaselia spp.) new to Sweden from the Tyresta National Park and Nature Reserve. - Studia dipterologica 13(2): 231-240.

Bonet, J.;Ulefors, S.-O.; Viklund, B. & Pape, T. (in press) Species richness estimations of the megadiverse scuttle fly genus Megaselia (Diptera: Phoridae) in a wildfire-affected hemiboreal forest. - Insect Science. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-7917.2010.01362.x

so long,
xylo

Posted by Kahis on 05-04-2011 15:21

Asilus wrote:
Thank you very much! I have now recieved my copy of Disney's volume on Megaselia. I am looking forward to start working on this genus.

You must be the only person in the world who actually looks forward to working on Megaselia. It's a nightmare genus like no other if you ask me :o

Having better male genitalia figures would be a great starting point. Having little experience with Megaselia, I find that the male genitalia are rather complex and probably have many good characters, but unfortunately Disney's illustrations don't really work for me; the more complex and informative parts are often obscured or distorted in the views provided.

This is probably an unavoidable side effect of the slide mounting preferred by Disney ... once a specimen is mounted according to his recommendations for Megaselia, you are restricted to the lateral views of the genitalia, and the hypandrium, usually best seen from a ventral view, is poorly visible.

Edited by Kahis on 05-04-2011 15:22

Posted by Paul Beuk on 05-04-2011 16:21

Kahis wrote:
This is probably an unavoidable side effect of the slide mounting preferred by Disney ... once a specimen is mounted according to his recommendations for Megaselia, you are restricted to the lateral views of the genitalia, and the hypandrium, usually best seen from a ventral view, is poorly visible.

And there is no guarantee that all slide-mounted genitalia will look exactly the same. With the amount of experience someone like Disney has it is possible to interpret the differences, we mere mortals are less fortunate. I rarely succeed in identifying one to species level because I do not slide-mount them. That leaves a lot of room for interpreting the lateral view of the genitalia the wrong way.