Lonchoptera lutea

I swept a small fly last week and finally got around to identifying it a couple of evenings back. I say 'small', but it's actually quite a bit larger than much of the stuff I've been looking at recently. Here it is alongside my finger and thumb for scale

Huge booger!

It has a very distinctive wing shape and venation, I knew exactly from which family it belonged. Here's a closer look, taken down the barrel of my microscope

This is from the family Lonchopteridae, know as the 'Spear-winged Flies'. There are only seven species on the British list and, despite being quite small, they aren't too tricky a bunch to identify. There's a brilliant online key which you can view and download here.

Working through the key necessitates a close look at the legs and a tiny row of spines along a wing vein, but it's all quite simple as long as you have a microscope. I think you'd definitely struggle with just a handlens. 

The red dots are my additions

The wing venation is diagnostic; all of the cross-veins are restricted to the basal area which, combined with the elongated wing shape (some might even say spear-shaped!), tells us we're dealing with Lonchopteridae. You'll notice that 'm' (the media vein) forks by the upper red dot. The lower red dot marks where 'a1' (anal vein 1) reaches the wing margin. In this instance they more or less line up with each other. Options in the key are that vein a1 ends "far beyond", "beyond", "at most only slightly beyond", or "rarely ending much beyond" the level of the fork. What are your thoughts?

Another thing to look at are the bristles on the fore tibia, where are they situated and how many of them are there?

Again, the red dots are my additions

Flies are covered in various hairs and bristles, each of which are uniquely named in order to distinguish them from all of the other hairs and bristles that occur on other parts of the body. The body itself is split into a great many named parts, and each vein in the wing is also named. All in all, there are a very great many bodyparts, veins and bristles of which to keep track! The terminology is truly bizarre and often confusing, but it certainly does help you to recognise the various 'bits' the keys require you to check. 

Vertical bristles and postocular cilliation all pale

Happily, my fly was a male so after working my way through the key, I came out to a species that seemed to match. Then all I had to do was compare its genitalia to the diagram to ensure I had it right, as no two fly species in a genus will have the same shaped genitalia - this essentially stops them mating with the wrong species. Imagine a lock and key, try to put the wrong key in the lock and it just won't open up. 

Male genitalia as viewed from the underside once I'd unhinged it

Looks a pretty good match to me

So what we have is a male Lonchoptera lutea, a common fly that I've seen here before. I also found a Lonchoptera bifurcata walking across a tree trunk the week before I swept this one from grass. Two down, five to go! Sadly they don't all occur this far north. 

I wonder if there are any fly families out there where all family members occur on Skye..?

A quick tour

A short while back I changed the card in my camera and now I can't find the full up one that I cunningly hid somewhere in my room. So, despite there being a backlog of some three weeks from the last blogpost, I don't have very many images to show you! 

Luckily I'd already shifted a few onto my desktop, including several showing specific locations I intended to target for fly and beetle searches. Then lockdown happened. To be fair, they are all in my home 1km square and I am allowed out once per day for 'exercise'. I'm not sure swinging a net and sieving piles of woodchip was quite what the government were thinking of when they defined exercise, so I shall try to restrict any such activities to when I'm well out of sight of any members of the public (not tricky around here!)

So here's a very short virtual tour of some hotspots for you....

This was a rather substantial Sycamore until recently, will soon be full of great beetles!

These large fallen logs are an absolute magnet for sunbathing flies

Again, the lichen-encrusted rocks in this wall are a magnet for sunbathing flies

Still to find Norellia spinipes on any daffodils this far north - not for lack of trying though!

There was a solitary sallow at the end of this lane that put forth good numbers of catkins. I was banking on this tree to provide me with a run of interesting flies and beetles. Sadly, the council foiled that plot and all that remains is a six inch high stump and a thin carpet of woodchip. At least they could have heaped the chippings instead of spreading it around. Or left the tree alone, actually!

I took myself for a wander over a nearby hill last week, the sun was out and I couldn't stand to just stare at the world through the window. Sunny but very chilly and my attempt at finding a sheltered suntrap found me staring at a windswept Ivy hang with buggerall on it. I spent a short while sweeping over the low grasses beneath trees high above the River Conon. Lots of ticks (the arachnids I mean, not lifers) and this assortment of flies, mirids and a bunch of Stenus for my efforts

Currently lounging in a small Backlog Box...

The fungus gnat Mycetophila ornata

EDIT - these are neither beetles or flies. My bad!

    

I bought myself an LED ring light for my microscope, I honestly have no idea how I got by with my desk lamp beforehand. £25 well spent, just check out the difference!

Euophryum confine viewed down the barrel of my microscope as lit by the desk lamp

Ta da!!!! Same beast, same set up, but illuminated by the ring light rather than the desk lamp

I'm pretty pleased with the extra level of detail I can discern with the LED set up. For features requiring low side lighting I can revert back to the desk lamp, it's right next to the microscope anyway so no hassle there. The LEDs are dimmable, from very bright to barely visible and the camera sensors deal with the light source a lot better too, colours are now much truer to life. The only downside is the reflection bouncing back from the insect itself, as can be seen on the pronotum above. But basically a sound purchase, in my opinion.

The only other thing of note was finding my first Cantharis soldier beetle of the year, though not quite how I'd been anticipating the occasion

Taken just before it fell to the woodland floor, never to be seen again! 

I'm now at 93 species of beetle identified from 22 families (plus an extra two families where I haven't identified the specimens to species level) and 28 species of fly identified from 17 families (plus an extra 11 families where I haven't identified the specimens to species level). 

Not sure where The Ghost is at regards his beetle family tally, but he's certainly behind me for flies, though I fully expect that to change any day now. Mark is hot on my heels regards number of diptera families he's recorded so far this year. As for the beetles? Sheesh, who even  knows! He's probably just waiting for the final four or five families to fall and that'll be him done for the year... I'm really out of my depth here, but it's still fun. 

For now. 

Time to Split

Today was my final day with The Ghost, he's a truly remarkable chap and a damn fine friend of mine. I'm heading west next, just for an over-nighter, before shooting back up to Skye and reality once more. 

The Ghost searching for Dwarf Sedge...in the wrong area

This was at Martin Down NNR earlier today, a site which, somewhat surprisingly, I've never visited before. After successfully locating Dwarf Sedge we ambled back across the downs noting a few nice beetles. It was still far too chilly for flies, despite the bright sunlight.

Lesser Bloody-nosed Beetles doing that thing they always seem to be doing

Exapion ulicis - we found dozens of these clambering around flowering gorse

We also found a couple of Pine Ladybirds emerging from their overwintering sites deep in a gorse thicket

We both realised that, despite the glorious sunshine, the cold wind was suppressing any fly activity. If only we could find a sheltered suntrap somewhere... We headed off for nearby woodland but The Ghost had his own cunning plan involving a pair of secateurs and some nettles. We drove southwards a bit more and ended up someplace deep in the Test Valley.

Despite us now having shelter from the wind, it was still pretty darned chilly. No flies at all (other than a small cloud of dancing Trichocera) were in evidence. So we hit the nettlebed bigtime. Our targets were the stoutest stems of last year's nettle growth. The Ghost was using his secateurs, I just ripped the stems out with my bare hands, trying hard not to make gratuitous 'raaaarrr' noises in the process. I've never split so many nettle stems in my life, I even broke a nail before eventually remembering the penknife in my pocket. 

I'll let you have a brief ponder as to why we were splitting last year's nettle stems. Here's a pic to distract you whilst you have a think

Chromatomyia scolopendra (Agromyzidae) mine on Hart's-tongue Fern

The Ghost had remembered something that I'd completely forgotten about - the fact that I had yet to encounter either of the agromyzids that bore through the centre of nettle stems. Luckily (for me, at least) it didn't take him too long to find this small larva inside a nettle stem. 

This is Phytomyza flavicornis - and a lifer for me!

Pretty soon though, we were finding another species of dipteran larvae in nettle stems. And then shedloads more inside Hogweed stems, sometimes two or three together. This mystery species had obviously blackened rear spiracles with a small spike on each, quite unlike the small pale bulbs of Phytomyza flavicornis. Neither of us knew what they were, so we collected a load to rear through.

I collected seven, I think The Ghost collected about ten

  

Back indoors we did a bit of online research. Before too long I'd figured what it was that we had discovered.

Phytomyza flavicornis - note the diagnostically shaped cephalic skeleton

The three pale, rounded 'bulbs' at the rear end of the Phytomyza flavicornis larva

And now for the second species...

Black chitinised spiracles, located very close together and with a sharp 'thorn' surrounded by distinct papillae

Substantially larger than the Phytomyza flavicornis larva

It was Melanagromyza angeliciphaga, new for both of us. Sweet, I like unexpected bonus species.

We had a quick tally up of our respective 2020 Vision totals. The Ghost has 22 named species (12 flies and 10 beetles) and I have 22 flies and 89 beetles. So it's a close thing thus far...

Just wait until he gets into the thick of it when the flies finally emerge, I won't see him for dust. This ridiculous lead is not going to last long, I just know it!

February Round-up

So that's me completed the second month of my 2020 Vision Challenge and I know exactly what you're thinking - was February any better for me than January was (could it really be any worse?)

At the end of January I'd managed to find and identify just ten species of beetle and eleven species of fly. That's poor, very poor. I realise that January doesn't exactly offer the best opportunities for finding insects, especially not up on Skye, but I really was hoping for more.

Luckily for me, come mid-February, I managed to skive a whole three weeks off work and immediately headed south to meet up with The Ghost and Mark Telfer, both of whom pulled out the stops to ensure we all spent quality time in the field (and Whipsnade Zoo's hot house!) Sadly the weather was still pretty crap; wet, cold and windy being the norm. Even the brighter days were still cold, hence I didn't add very much in the way of dipteran interest. The beetles were pretty good though. 

Chromatomyia scolopendri on Hart's-tongue Fern - the pupa is visible in the mine

And if you think that is scraping the barrel....

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

This was from inside the butterfly house at Whipsnade Zoo. Despite being abundant over the heaps of rotting bananas left out for the butterflies, they were a complete bugger to catch (I hadn't brought my butterfly net into the butterfly house - I figured that would be pushing my luck too far). I haven't gotten around to even attempting to ID the fruit flies yet, though Drosophilidae was an unexpected family tick for the year. Coz yep, I'll take anything to stay ahead of The Ghost, though I fear I'll be at the back of the pack soon enough, once spring arrives. 

I took the opportunity to take my fungus gnat haul to BENHS at Dinton just in case fungus gnat guru Peter Chandler was in attendance. Guess what...

Get in!!!!

Sadly I only had two species (out of twelve specimens) but he's happy for me to send him more specimens near the end of the year for the national recording scheme that he runs. Hence I'll hopefully glean a few more for the tally. The other good news is that I now recognise the diagnostic wing patterning of Mycetophila ornata, so I don't have to collect any more of those. 

Beetles came thick and fast, many species from a small patch of reedbed flood debris, yet more from a couple of decent leaf-litter sieving sessions in South Hampshire. One that particularly surprised me was this beast

Paederus littoralis - high up on a calcareous hillside!

Previously I've only ever seen Paederus in wetland habitats and the name littoralis would suggest this is a shoreline species. Except I was halfway up Magdalen Hill Downs near Winchester. However, the mandibles don't lie (they were black) and it transpires that Paederus littoralis is just as happy in dry habitats as wet. Cool, a very smart lifer too.

Speaking of lifers, I accumulated quite a few during February. A very meagre total of just three new flies, but a somewhat healthier seventeen new beetles. The 2020 Challenge totals at the close of February stand at 17 species of Diptera and 46 species of Coleoptera. As a sneak preview, the start of March was pretty magical for beetles. So I better hurry up and blog about that too.