Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Sphaeroceridae, Nov.02, 2006

Posted by Dmitry Gavryushin on 06-11-2006 12:45
#1

A single specimen was found among fallen leaves (mostly Tilia cordata) in our town park. Size aorund 2mm. I supposed it's a Ischiolepta micropyga; and here's what Dr. Jindřich Roh?ček wrote in reply:

I do not think that they belong to I. micropyga because the hind femora (male) are clearly swollen and the fore coxa is not completely dark and the specimen is not so blackish shining and has stouter appearance than I. micropyga. For me it looks like the oedypodous form of I. pusilla (Fall?n, 1820) which is usually larger and darker (legs in particular) than the typical form. However, I cannot exclude that the specimen may belong to habitually almost identical I. vaporariorum (Haliday, 1836) which also has both oedypodous and slender-legged forms and can be distinguished from I. pusilla only by means of characters in the male genitalia. I. vaporariorum is much rarer than I. pusilla which is common in various rotting substrates.


So I think we can label it as Ischiolepta cf. pusilla.

Edited by Dmitry Gavryushin on 06-11-2006 12:46

Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 06-11-2006 12:49
#2

With kind help of Robert Nash we have now Pitkin's Spaeroceridae key.
Let us inverstigate genitalia:o
One day we have to begin...