Female Scorpion Fly ?

[mrs fish]

I have a pic of a male with the large sting on the tail and I wondered if this was a female with hardly any sting on the tail ?
Is that even how you tell the sexes apart ?

[Deer Stalker]

Hi Mrs Fish.

Yep thats how you tell the sexes apart. Yours is a female.

[mrs fish]

Oh lovely , I like to get photos of matching pairs

Thanks

[Pudding4brains]

Hi Mrs Fish,

She's an interesting one too. As Fauna Europaea suggests that Panorpa vulgaris is not recorded for Britain I've been trying to find images that prove them wrong -to no avail- in order to verify this assumption as good as possible.

The two species Panorpa communis and Panorpa vulgaris can only be told apart conditionally as there seems to be some overlap in characteristic wing markings. Interestingly this 'conditionally' includes checking the genitalia - with percentage wise an even bigger overlap than with the wing markings.

For me, with my current state of knowledge and 'recognition skills' on the continent I would have to be prudent about this one - not being quite confident if this one is showing markings that might not also occur on vulgaris.

Now, assuming that Britain indeed doesn't have vulgaris (!?) this would have to be communis, so it's showing nicely how extended the markings on communis can get - especially the size/darkness of the Basal-spot.

Where are the images of your male(s) for the "matching pair" - would like to look at these too

Thanks for sharing the image!
Arp

[mrs fish]

Here is the male



You did mention something about him in his post

See here
http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/fo...28907-fly.html

[Pudding4brains]

Ah right - that one

You have a knack for interesting samples The ab.seg. 3 on that one is still annoying me to pieces Shame you didn't get better images, or is there any chance you might have other perspectives of that male one still - even if blurry?

Will see if I can work your animals into the quick ref - will work on that later tonight if at all possible (in hospice with a friend, if she's awake we'll talk, if not I might get something done)

Cheers, Arp

[mrs fish]

The only other half decent shot I have of him