Cranefly - help with id

[Heart-shaped World]

Hi all,

Would be good if people could spare the time to have a look and see what can be suggested for this. Was seen in mixed wet woodland, near the runnels around the pond, back in early June.
Would be good if any level of confidence could be stated too and whether I should try for a specimen next year.
(It's on a BBOWT reserve I have some involvement in, so ultimately a record would be good.)



Thanks,
Darren.

[haematocephalus]

Hi Darren,

These large craneflies can be surprisingly tricky to put a name to, but I'm fairly sure this is a Ctenophora pectinicornis (a female). It's a Nationally Scarce species, with larvae developing in decaying wood, especially of old Beech trees.

A specimen shouldn't be necessary to confirm, but if you have or can get a few more photos that would be good, especially to see more detail of the wings and antennae.

There are several records for the BBOWT area, but it's certainly not common, so great to see it on a reserve.

Martin


Martin Harvey

[Heart-shaped World]

Thanks for the time and enthusiasm Martin. I see what you mean, as despite it's superficially distinctive appearance I rapidly came to the conclusion that I wasn't up to id'ing this ...
There are mature Beech on the eastern side of the pond, Scots Pine + heather slope to the west, Oak to the north and Hazel, Birch, etc amongst the moss mats in the wetter southern part (where it's fed from). Quite an interesting mix for West Berks.
Unfortunately, it's one of those occasions when I fluffed the only close shot, see below (it flew off after that). I'll check the flight period for the suggested candidate and see if I can get something better next time.



Many thanks,
Darren.

[Pudding4brains]

I'll second Martin's ID (maybe compare here) - working on a key-ish thingy for Ctenophora and close relatives at the moment, so looked at a lot of pictures lately

Flight period for the Netherlands is listed as "May through July and September" (oldish book/key though).

Cheers for the nice find!
Arp

[Heart-shaped World]

Thanks Arp. Gives me a few weeks, at least, to have another look!

[Laurence Clemons]

Interesting. I have only found it during the last week to ten days in May.

[Pudding4brains]

Well, I've never found any and my booklet is from 1957 and only for the Netherlands - might well be that it's different now, or different for Britain. There seems to exist a fantastic 'test key' and a 'provisional atlas' for Britain by Alan Stubbs, that I would very much like to have a look at, but it's only available to subscribers of a website (magazine??) or so (Bulletin of Dipterists Forum) .... you guys might have access though, so I suppose those would give the correct local flight period.

Cheers, Arp

[haematocephalus]

Arp,

The atlas by Alan Stubbs gives the flight period for C. pectinicornis as May to July. The atlas is published by the Biological Records Centre and can be purchased from them, see:
Biological Records Centre - Publications

The draft keys may be available from the UK cranefly recording scheme, you'd need to contact them direct, see:
The Society for the study of flies (Diptera) / Cranefly Recording Scheme

Alan Stubbs is working towards a cranefly book, to accompany his existing volumes on hoverflies and soldierflies.

Cheers,
Martin

[bugbotherer]

Agree with Martin

[Pudding4brains]

Thanks for the pointers Martin - have gathered some courage and e-mailed Alan and John directly to see what they have available. Will probably order the atlases too, although I would much prefer digital copies over paper (easier to travel).