Fly profile in colour, and others.

MarkB1 · Post by **MarkB1** » Tue May 12, 2009 6:45 am

One from the bag. On my blue hemp shirt hanging on the line, sun is behind and high at 1, fill flash, rotated 90'.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Tue May 12, 2009 7:05 am

Superb shots.

This is your spider:

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane ... Andrew.htm

Harold

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Tue May 12, 2009 8:14 am

Three lovely shots!

The first fly is a horse fly or deer fly (The females are blood 'suckers', and I think this is a female) they can bite through shirts... Did it get you?.

I think the last one is a Mossie...

MarkB1 · Post by **MarkB1** » Tue May 12, 2009 9:20 am

Thanks Harold, some people go to a lot of trouble to collate and present information.

Thanks lauriek, it didn't get me. The shirt was hanging on the line to dry. The last one is a mozzie all right, probably one of the last around here for a while, it's getting that cold now.

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Tue May 12, 2009 10:58 am

lauriek wrote: The first fly is a horse fly or deer fly (The females are blood 'suckers', and I think this is a female) they can bite through shirts

That was my first reaction but the mouthparts didn't seem shaped quite as I expected them to be. Which shows how wrong I was.

Harold

sagarmatha · Post by **sagarmatha** » Tue May 12, 2009 10:59 am

Great shots FZ!

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Tue May 12, 2009 12:32 pm

The mouthparts look similar to this one - http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... =horse+fly I shot a while back, which was definitely a Horse fly.. (And I presume with the eyes widely spaced like that, a female? Does that work for all diptera?)

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Tue May 12, 2009 3:33 pm

As a student of the Tabanidae I really like #1. It's not a Deer Fly (Chrysops) but would be called a Horse Fly in the Northern Hemisphere.
Incidentally, Laurie's Haematopota is not crassicornis (antennae wrong for that species). In UK species in this genus are Clegs; Horse Flies are Tabanus and Hybomitra

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Wed May 13, 2009 1:28 am

NikonUser wrote: It's not a Deer Fly (Chrysops) but would be called a Horse Fly in the Northern Hemisphere. ........In UK species in this genus are Clegs; Horse Flies are Tabanus and Hybomitra

It's not so clear-cut. Whilst the Cleg is recognised as such, they are included with other tabanids as Horse-flies e.g. in A Field Guide to the Insects of Britain and Northern Europe, edited by Michael Chinery, ISBN 0 00 2192160. Chinery uses the hyphenated term Cleg-fly, which is not in common use. "Gad-fly" sees to have fallen out of widespread use.

My garden being adjacent to the Thames flood plain, we get three species. Chrysops relictus is the most common and hardest biter, the Cleg Haematopota pluvialis is frequent, and the huge Tabanus bovinus is occasional. Chrysops is the only one which seems no less frequent since the adjacent farm ceased fattening beef cattle several years ago.

Our Clegs do not have such colourful eyes but Chrysops relictus has very bright green, almost diode-like ones.

I have not seen any reference to Hybomitra in the British fauna.

Harold

NikonUser · Post by **NikonUser** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:37 am

Harold:
FYI and FWIW. The classic
"British Blood-Sucking Flies" by Edwards, F.W. , Oldroyd, H, and J. Smart. 1939. [Price Fifteen Shillings]. British Museum, London, has great colour images. The Chpt on Haematopota calls them "Dun-Flies or Clegs" .
They also give accounts of all the British Horse Flies under the genus Tabanus. Currently 9 of these species are placed in the genus Hybomitra; see Chvala, M. et al.. 1972. "The Horse Flies of Europe"

Dalantech · Post by **Dalantech** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:51 am

Excellent set!

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Wed May 13, 2009 4:53 am

Nikon User,

Thanks for the reference but £30 for a used copy from Amazon cannot be justified.

Incidentally, "dun" in Dun-flies means brownish grey.

Harold

Harold Gough · Post by **Harold Gough** » Wed May 13, 2009 7:01 am

Having found my other main book, which was cunningly hidden, in full view, on the correct bookshelf

I can add to/correct my earlier post.

The larger species in my garden could be T. bromius.

There is another species, H. crassicornis "a horse-fly, sometimes also called a 'cleg'*. This does have irridescent eyes.

* The Collins Complete British Wildlife Photoguide by Paul Sterry, ISBN 0-00-220071-6

Harold

Aynia · Post by **Aynia** » Wed May 13, 2009 10:01 am

First one looks very nice against the blue background.
I must go and inspect my clothes' line now.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed May 13, 2009 10:30 am

I keep coming back to these. Very nicely done!

I especially like the two flies.

--Rik