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style=3D"margin: 0. Chris, Dave, Angus, Peter, Jean...others, Chris: I'm glad it turned out to be correct even to the species, which was a worry. Thanks for taking the time to check the collection -- in fact from me and I'm sure many others on this list, many thanks for your general help in answering such a varying range of questions so ably (when do you sleep?). Dave: I liked your McGonagall imitiation on Keys versus Colours (strike that, oops, it was actually M.F.L!), but the better answer is 'none of the above'. Instead, one should pack off one's insects to a Diptera taxonomy unit and get them professionally determined, by people who are experienced in reading these darn' keys, which are not easy for us amateurs and often only go to genus not species. But these folks are few in number and getting fewer, their professional reputations are behind the determinations so they need to be careful, and they were very busy even the last time I did this in the mid-80s. This was for ~8 specimens (flies) in connection with a project on evolution of connections within the nervous system, and it took ~6 months to get the successful determinations back. We were grateful, but to illustrate a contrast, journal editors these days increasing accompany an electronic request to review a manuscript (electronically) with another request, later a demand, to get it back to them (electronically) with 2 weeks. So browsing Bugguide.net may be sloppy but it can be a stop-gap at least if someone else has photo'd it. E.O Wilson drew public attention to the seriousness of this identification problem some years ago in connection with the dominant position and diversity of ants in tropical ecosystems, most insects in which have not yet been identified or even collected. If I recall correctly, he said even then that only two experienced taxonomists who could identify newly discovered Amazonian ants were available, both of whom were within range of retirement, and that no-one new was being trained. How to deal with ecosystem richness if no-one can even ID the specimens? Suggestions have been made to switch to a different, more manageable system in which each new specimen has part of it's DNA sequenced, and data-banked: in future you might simply send in your ground-up syrphid whose DNA gets extracted and sequenced and compared to the data base. A good bet would be that cost-recovery would be applied to cover the running of the million dollar machines, though... Thanks finally to several people who suggested different insecticides for collections. I never thought to look in C. Tire for Vapona, but now will check it out. Steve Quoting Christopher Majka <c.majka@ns.sympatico.ca>: > That's it: no doubt about it. We have specimens of Sericomyia > chrysotoxoides Macquart from Chignecto, Baleine, Prospect, Chester, > East Chester, Bridgewater, Spondu Lake, and East River. Dates range > from May 30, June 20, July 3, 5, August 10, 12, 23, 26, and even one > from Nov 1. A handsome looking fly. > FYI: Sericomyia lata (Coquillett), S. transversa (Osburn), & S. > militaris Walker are also found in NS. > Cheers! > Chris > _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._. _. > 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> > _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._. _. >
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Index of Subjects