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Hello Chris, Dave W and other sometime insectophiles,
Thanks to an invaluable lead supplied by David McCorquodale in a
recent post
on NatureNS, I was able to contact dolichopodid specialist Scott Brooks
about
the Fundy cliff fly in question, and got his reply (copied below)
within an hour
or two. Kudos also to Dave Webster who did a preliminary run-down on a
key in the
Manual of ND and got to the correct genus, _Liancalus_. Apparently
there's only
one eastern N. American species of _Liancalus_ so it seems to be a
solid ID,
_L. genualis_ (Loew).
Resurrecting an earlier question raised about bristletails, it would
be
interesting to know how the larvae (or the pupae) of these flies that
are currently
present on the sea cliff face survive the winter when it dips to -20
degrees C or below
sometimes. Presumably, like bristletails, they migrate into the rock
fissures
before freeze-up, where the temperature may not even reach freezing. Or
else they have serious levels of antifreeze, or both.
If I get any more info from Scott on this species I'll pass it along,
as a light
counterpoint to all the accounts of migrating whimbrels (just kidding,
love 'em
all if they can fly).
Steve
Chocolate Lake, Halifax
*****************************************
----- Forwarded message from brookss@AGR.GC.CA -----
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 17:38:46 -0400
From: "Brooks, Scott" <brookss@AGR.GC.CA>
Reply-To: "Brooks, Scott" <brookss@AGR.GC.CA>
Subject: RE: Dolichopodid NS fly species
To: Steve Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca>
Hi Steve: Your dolichopodid appears to be Liancalus genualis Loew. There
are 5 described species of Liancalus in North America north of Mexico
with only one (i.e. L. genualis) known from the east. All of the species
in this genus are hygrophilous and often found in association with
seepages; larvae are known from algal mats. Richard Hurley revised this
group in 1986. I'll check to see what he says about L. genualis, but
I'll have to get the paper from the library tomorrow.
Cheers,
Scott
Scott E. Brooks
Diptera Unit, Invertebrate Biodiversity
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
K.W. Neatby Building, 960 Carling Ave.
Ottawa, ON, K1A 0C6
Phone: (613) 694-2718
Fax: 613-759-1927
brookss@agr.gc.ca <mailto:username@agr.gc.ca>
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