next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects
388496805_4971/sm Thanks for all of your help. I am still wading through it and will add your suggestions to the comment area of the image on BugGuide for their experts to consider as well. Sorry I did not collect this fly- but will if it turns up again in the near future. Plus other male Tabanids if I come across them. Nancy On 2014-08-12, at 9:40 AM, Randy Lauff <randy.lauff@gmail.com> wrote: > I'd tend to lean towards Atylotus myself. I worked a couple years with Horse and Deer Flies, one summer collecting them every day from a trap which was largely selective for them (i.e. little by-catch). I caught thousands that summer, all but one were female**. Like all of our blood feeders, only the females bite, so traps which mimic prey, either by sight or smell, attract the females. The males often look different enough from females to make one think they're altogether a different species (especially given how often closely related insects can be difficult to separate). They're so different in fact, that Teskey's book (https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/yumpu/yumpu.com/000/022/513/783/1388496805_4971/small/THE_INSECTS_AND_ARACHNIDS000001.jpg) uses separate keys for the sexes. > > Nancy...on the very remote chance you actually collected that fly...I'd love to have it if you don't want it. Males are quite valuable (from a scientific standpoint) in collections. > > Randy > > **The paper summarizing all the findings is in prep right now, though we did publish a more theoretical paper already: > Positive interspecific relationship between temporal occurrence and abundance in insects. It's a heavy read, but if you're interested, can be found here: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0018982#pone-0018982-g001 > > _________________________________ > RF Lauff > Way in the boonies of > Antigonish County, NS. > > > On 12 August 2014 08:51, David McCorquodale <dbmcc09@gmail.com> wrote: > Nancy and Steve: > > There are two Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification articles on tabanids (horse and deer flies – the ones with patterned wings). Both were written by Tony Thomas of New Brunswick. They provide a great introduction and build on the work of Teskey, formerly of the Canadian National Insect Collection. Here is the link to the one that deals with the horse flies. http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/ejournal/t_13/t_13.html > > > I am not sure which horse fly this is. A brief scan through BugGuide and Steve Marshall’s ‘Flies’ suggests that Atylotus bicolor would be a possibility. Here is a link to one on BugGuide: http://bugguide.net/node/view/673858/bgpage. > > > This is a male because of the eyes meeting in the centre of the face. Unfortunately most of the identification materials focus on the females. > > DBMcC > Georges River, NS > > > David McCorquodale > Georges River, NS > > > On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 12:46 AM, Stephen Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca> wrote: > Hi Nancy, > Unfortunately, there are few Canadian resources for identifying flies, but thankfully an exception is for family Tabanidae (which this looks like, but it it not a deer fly, Chrysops sp; looks like a male). Google to Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification which is out of the U of Alberta, and pick Tabanidae. I think I actually went to > www.biology.ualberta/bsc/ejournal/tm-08/chrysops23.htm > which got me to the right family. You then hit 'Gallery' at the top which brings up a picture gallery of ~30 shots of the all species (there are ~25 species of Chrysops east of the Rockies, so most pics there are one or other Chrysops). Near the end is Stonemyia rasa, which it possibly could be. There are 2 Stonemyia species and there's some text about misidentification of the rasa species with the other Stonemyia. > I'm not good at identification and am not saying that's what it is, but this would be a good start for you, as you have all the likely species there, once you know it actually is a tabanid (recognizable as a group). > > As I think I said before but it is worth repeating, anyone can use BugGuide.net for free, but if you actually join up (also free) and give yourself a password, you can post images in a section for identification. Maybe no-one will get to it immediately, but sooner or later they should. It sounds like you must have done this, so this comment may be irrelevant. An odd limitation with BugGuide is that if you are in a much photo'd group like Syrphidae (hoverflies) where there are loads of images on file, and think you have the likely genus and type that in, it will bring up a raft of images for that genus but which may not include your species, so you think it's not there. If you are somehow able to guess the actual species and type that in, up may come pics of your species -- it was in the file bank all the time, but only a limited selection was presented for first view under the genus. > Steve (Hfx) > ________________________________________ > From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] on behalf of nancy dowd [nancypdowd@gmail.com] > Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 5:46 PM > To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca > Subject: [NatureNS] tabanid fly > > This fly was moved to Tabanidae (Deer and Horse Flies) on BugGuide where it has sat for a few days. It looks different than the familiar pattern-winged Deer Flies I usually see and is too small for a Horse Fly. It was at the lights before dawn (details below image): > https://www.flickr.com/photos/92981528@N08/14702512497/ > > Anyone here recognize it further than the family level? Possibly a Stonemyia? > > Thanks for any help, Nancy > > >
next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects