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Hi Bev, A word of encouragement to say that it would good to have someone photographing and identifying tipulids (crane flies) and related groups here. It was one of your excellent images from Ontario of a small asilid, Dioctria hyalopennis, that helped me ID the same species that I had been collecting in the garden here. Identification of flies is a problem if you don't like keys (who does?). BugGuide.net seems to be the most comprehensive source of images, but is tedious work if you don't have even a genus name. On volcanic sea cliffs facing NW fairly near you (Fundy shore, around Halls Harbour and Harbourville particularly), we've collected bristletails (Archaeognatha) at about 1-2 metres above high tide line, where rain water leaks out of the rotten rock face. The only other fairly common insects inhabiting the same seepage spots are two species of fly, one a large dolichpodid (Liancalus genualis) that I'm also interested in and periodically collect. The other fly appears to be a smallish 1 cm long tipulid (though it may be in a related group) with fold-back spotted wings and springy legs (it continually does springy 'press-ups' with these). The cliffs are high enough in places that relatively few spiders and beetles get down to the bottom of the cliffs, so while it is a rather barren habitat it's probably relatively insect-predator free. These tipulids should be found also further down, nearer your area, though I am not familiar with the cliffs and their accessibility there. I'd be interested if you can track down the ID of this tipulid, if you get out to the cliffs and can get photos. You will know already that most of these Minas Basin cliffs are dangerous even well before high tide -- look up the local tide timetable on the web, to avoid getting cut off. The harshness of the Fundy cliff area raises the question of how the three species survive there through the winter. The bristletails solve this by migrating into deep cracks in the cliff face in September and not coming out again until at least May. There's a small waterfall coming over the cliff round a corner about 1.5 km SW from Halls Harbour, and even in November a rock face next to the falls has had numbers of 1.5 cm long larvae in among the algae, in the running water. These turn out to be larvae of the same tipulid (I reared one through to the adult stage). Presumably these larvae leave the water flow even later in the year before freeze-up and perhaps pupate in rock crevices nearby. Possibly they may also live in the more benign environment of the stream above the falls. Why could Tipulidae be interesting to biologists? The FLYTREE project currently fingers that family as closest to the ancestry of all the 'higher' flies, the Brachycera. The nervous system in the eye changed at the origin of the Brachycera, so what the tipulid-like ancestor had before then needs to be investigated more thoroughly. Among people who are interested in how brains wire up in development and who like to study simplified 'model' systems, this spotlights tipulids. Work becomes much easier if the species can be kept continuously in culture, but I haven't heard of anyone being able to do this with a tipulid. Steve (Halifax) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quoting bev wigney <bev@magickcanoe.com>: > Thank you, Chris. I've just finished updating the captions with > these identifications. One of those Tortricidae moths (the one with > the narrow stripes) is my nemesis - I've photographed it or a very > similar species several times in Ontario, but haven't come up with > an ID to species as yet. > If this weather warms up any time soon, I'll continue to add more > photos to this gallery and hopefully it can serve as something of a > resource for others who may want to do some mothing in the region. > Here's the URL again for anyone who is interested in following the > moths that I'm seeing - or currently "not seeing" here at Round Hill > (just east of Annapolis Royal). > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/round_hill_moths > By the way, I am also trying to photograph and ID craneflies if > there is anyone who has an interest in those as well. I think I may > have been able to ID a couple so far, but don't mind being corrected: > Tipula valida > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/124870027 > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/124870028 > Epiphragma fasciapenne > http://www.pbase.com/crocodile/image/124870029 > I'll add more craneflies to this gallery as I come across them over > the season. > > Bev Wigney > Round Hill, N.S. > N44.46.23, W065.24.18 (WGS84)
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