[NatureNS] Dolichopodid fly ID

Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 07:45:45 -0300
From: "David McCorquodale" <David_McCorquodale@capebretonu.ca>
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Steve et al.

The dolichopodid expert is a Canadian, Scott Brooks.  He recently started work at the 
Canadian National Collection.  Scott would be able to tell you what it is. 


http://www.canacoll.org/Diptera/Staff/Brooks/Brooks.htm

His email is on this web page.

David McCorquodale

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From:   Stephen Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca>
Reply-To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Date:    Thu,  7 Sep 2006 02:05:23 -0300

Hi Chris,
Thanks for trying and spending time looking.  I also loaded up the 
photos as an
ID Request on Bugguide.net at the same time, but have just checked and so far
have had no takers.  I'll try to find out who if anyone knows this 
family in N.
America at the Smithsonian or somewhere and pursue it that way.  It could be
that it is not actually so specialized as to habitat and also lives (e.g.) in
the water sources at the top of the cliffs as well -- I haven't checked.  Will
let the list know if I can find an ID, as Dave W. has also seen it, as he said
in an earlier reply.  It's a very colourful fly.
Cheers,
Steve
Choc Lake, Halifax

Quoting Christopher Majka <c.majka@ns.sympatico.ca>:
> Hi Steve,>
> I took a look at the Dolichopodidae in the NS Museum collection (53  
> species) and there is nothing there that resembles the species in  
> your photographs. There are some specimens of Hydophorus but they are 
>  all of a uniformly metallic colour and don't show the banded abdomen 
>  of the species in your photos.
>
> Clueless ... ;->
>
> Chris
>
> On 3-Sep-06, at 7:28 PM, Stephen Shaw wrote:
>
>> Hi Chris and others,
>>  A couple of weeks back we visited the cliffs at Halls Harbour and  again
>> encountered a distinctive, quite large, greenish banded dolichopodid
>> (Dolochopdidae, long-legged flies), and this time I took some  
>> photos.  The fly
>> is about 7 mm long, head to abdomen tip, is common and populates  
>> only the fresh
>> water "seeps" that run out of the cliffs at frequent points. The  male has
>> wing-tips that are particularly distinctive (black with a small  round clear
>> "eyepot", and are presumably species-diagnostic (image 33, on site  
>> below)). Apart from the occasional concertina-legged nematoceran  
>> fly (may be a tipulid
>> but not identified), the only other obvious insects present in this  
>> demanding
>> and species-poor habitat are bristletails.  These are currently  
>> common, but too
>> big in August to be the likely prey of this fly -- many dolichos  
>> are predacious
>> on smaller insects.  I also have some rather murky pics of dipteran  
>> larvae up
>> to 15 mm long associated with the green filamentous algae in the  same water
>> seeps at the same time, that possibly could be larvae of the same  species.
>>
>> I've put two cropped photos of a live female dolicho on the cliff  
>> face, and one
>> of a pinned male on the Flickr site below, and would appreciate a  
>> guess at the
>> ID from Chris or anyone else who might have seen it before and is  
>> reading this.
>>
>> If interested please take a look at the last 3 images I uploaded  
>> (called 04),
>> 06) and 33)) on this site:
>>
>> www.flickr.com/photos/steve_1968
>>
>> There are many species of _Hydrophorus_, a dolichopodid genus which  looks a
>> likely candidate, but I've not found an image on Bugguide.net or  
>> elsewhere so
>> far that resembles this species. Has anyone noticed it before or  
>> have any idea
>> as to the ID?
>>
>> Steve Shaw
>> Chocolate Lake, Halifax
>>
>
> _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._. _.
> Christopher Majka - Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History
> 1747 Summer Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada  B3H 3A6
> (902) 424-6435   Email <c.majka@ns.sympatico.ca>
> _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._. _.
>


--
D.B. McCorquodale
Department of Biology, Cape Breton University
Box 5300, Sydney, NS B1P 6L2 CANADA
902-563-1260   david_mccorquodale AT capebretonu.ca
--

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