Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Muscidae, Mesembrina?
Posted by wilde on 15-04-2007 16:27
#1
This fly was sitting on a broomstick near my kitchen. It has brownish colours on the wings and a kind of postscutellem.
Could it be a Mesembrina species? Which one?
Edited by wilde on 15-04-2007 16:39
Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 15-04-2007 16:40
#2
No Albert, it is male of Pollenia, Calliphoridae.
Nikita
Posted by wilde on 15-04-2007 18:31
#3
Nikita, I'm not quite convinced. My Diptera guide sais that Calliphoridae don't have a postscutellum. It is obvious that my fly has a postscutellem. A Pollenia species should have orange hairs on the thorax. I don't see any of them.
What makes you think it is a male Pollenia sp.?
Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 15-04-2007 21:14
#4
Albert,
1. Postscutellum is hardly visible on photo.
2. Pollenia may be with a lot of golden hairs like:
http://www.diptera.info/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=5&thread_id=5606&pid=25101#post_25101
or bold like:
http://www.diptera.info/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=5&thread_id=5519&pid=24782#post_24782
3. It is not Mesembrina because it looks not like this (see Gallery)
It is not Musca, than it is not Muscidae, because of vein M1+2.
4. It is not Tachinidae because of plumose arista and non-Tachinidae antennae.
5. The easiest way, I think, is to remember ?jizz? of Pollenia, you can find a lot by search on keyword ?pollenia? on Diptera.info. To tell you truth in case of your photo (a very good one, by the way) the most characteristic for my was unmistakable bluish color of abdomen dusting.
Nikita
P.S. All the ?bold? early spring Pollenia with such a bluish abdomen dusting I collected was ID by experts as Pollenia rudis?
Posted by Kahis on 15-04-2007 21:21
#5
I have to side with Nikita. The place where the postscutellum would be if this fly had one (below the scutellum) is not visible. Only a part of the metanotum (area between scutellum and base of abdomen) is visible.
Although unusually bluish, it's probably a
Pollenia. You are quite correct, it does not have yellow hairs, but the sides of thorax have short pale hairs - close enough. The amount of these pale hairs is very variable and spring specimens, having spent the winter in confined spaces, have often lost nearly all of then,
Posted by Kahis on 15-04-2007 21:23
#6
Excellent photograph btw. Please submit it to the Gallery as an example of a dark
Pollenia.
Posted by wilde on 15-04-2007 23:29
#7
OK thanks all of you for more explaination. The yellow-brown shields at each side of the scutellum looked to me as a postscutellum. What are these shields if they are not a postscutellum?
How to submit a photo to the gallery? I did't succeed.
Edited by wilde on 16-04-2007 10:02
Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 16-04-2007 09:56
#8
Click "Submit photo for Gallery" =
http://www.diptera.info/submit.php?stype=p
Posted by wilde on 16-04-2007 10:00
#9
I tried to submit the photo to the gallery, but get an error: Your photo could not be submitted.
The photo: 736x552 pixels; 135168 kb.
What is going wrong?
Edited by wilde on 16-04-2007 10:10
Posted by Paul Beuk on 16-04-2007 10:28
#10
Well, I am fed up with all the errors that occur after the image verification script was updated. i will set the old one back.
Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 16-04-2007 13:04
#11
I can't submit image too, neither yesterday, nor today...
Posted by Tony Irwin on 16-04-2007 21:15
#12
Hi Albert
The yellow-brown shields are the paired calyptera - usually clear, white or yellow thoracic processes that cover the halteres in "calypterate" flies. The postscutellum is a single, cushion-like "mini-scutellum" that is found directly under the scutellum and is most obvious in tachinids.