Stonefly and Fly IDs

[iainL]

Hi

Is anyone able to help out with names for either of these two creatures?





Many Thanks

Iain

[Jason Green]

Evening Iain,

I believe your fly is a Root-maggot Fly from the Anthomyiidae family - though I personally can't go further. Your Stonefly looks nice - but I've never seen one, and have never looked into their taxonomy/anatomy, and my knowledge on them as such is absolutely zero! Others here should at least get you to genus though

Take care,

Jason

[peterbolson]

Hi Ian
I think the stonefly is one of the Nemouridae family. It has no tails and has an x-like figure on the wing near the costal margin.
Peter

[iainL]

Thanks Jason

I thought I'd have a go at the stonefly and the best I can come up with is Nemoura cinerea, based largely on veination and some pictures I found on the web. Hopefully someone will confirm, or otherwise, my guess.

Cheers

Iain

[iainL]

Thanks Peter

Is this one of these 'one of several similar species' groups which need prised apart with a razor blade to confirm down to species.
Cheers

Iain

[peterbolson]

Hi Ian
I believe microscopic examination is necessary to get it to species level. Neuroma cinerea is unlikely because the adult flies in August & Sepember.
Peter

[JRsbugs]

The fly I feel sure is Muscidae, looks a lot like Morellia sp. Muscina is another consideration, the ones I have had have a brown tip to the scutellum.

Janet

[Jason Green]

I considered Muscidae first with a body like that!

Still I wasn't too sure, so I looked at the wing venation - vein M1 goes straight to the wing margin, as opposed to turning at 90' and joining R4+5 as it does in Muscidae.

In-line with wing venation, with Morellia you'll see the typical wing venation between M1 and R4+5 here: http://www.tuin-thijs.com/images/vli...-1-20-5-09.jpg, (assuming they've identified it correctly!) which is typical Muscidae. Iain's fly shows Anthomyiidae venation

[JRsbugs]

Originally Posted by Jason Green

I considered Muscidae first with a body like that!

Still I wasn't too sure, so I looked at the wing venation - vein M1 goes straight to the wing margin, as opposed to turning at 90' and joining R4+5 as it does in Muscidae.

In-line with wing venation, with Morellia you'll see the typical wing venation between M1 and R4+5 here: http://www.tuin-thijs.com/images/vli...-1-20-5-09.jpg, (assuming they've identified it correctly!) which is typical Muscidae. Iain's fly shows Anthomyiidae venation

Jason, I would suggest you spend some time looking at the many pics on diptera.info, after looking for a few years it might, if you look long and hard enough, start coming together. There's cross over features in several families.

Look at Muscina levida, the wings match well along with other features but I'm not an expert, and I can't see a brown tip but the pic is dark.

Diptera.info - Photo Albums: Muscina levida (female) (5)

[peterbolson]

I'm no expert on flies but in Unwin's AIDGAP key to the families of British Diptera they are separated by vein 6 reaching the wing margin in Anthomyiidae and not reaching it in Muscidae.
Peter