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Ethiopian Tachinid
Nikita Vikhrev	#1 Posted on 12-08-2012 07:44
Member Location: Posts: 9193 Joined: 24.05.05	Is it genus Tachina or some related one? Central Ethiopia (several places), rainy season, 1900m asl. Edited by Nikita Vikhrev on 12-08-2012 07:51 Nikita Vikhrev - Zool Museum of Moscow University


sd	#2 Posted on 12-08-2012 11:55
Member Location: Posts: 892 Joined: 11.10.07	This is Dejeania Steve


Nikita Vikhrev	#3 Posted on 12-08-2012 18:46
Member Location: Posts: 9193 Joined: 24.05.05	Thank you Steve (nice fly and nice generic name Nikita Vikhrev - Zool Museum of Moscow University


jorgemotalmeida	#4 Posted on 12-08-2012 18:48
Member Location: Posts: 9295 Joined: 05.06.06	are you in Ethiopia still, Nikita? well, very unlikely.. because I doubt about the internet connections over there. Edited by jorgemotalmeida on 12-08-2012 20:23


ChrisR	#5 Posted on 12-08-2012 20:02
Administrator Location: Posts: 7699 Joined: 12.07.04	Lovely fly - fascinating that they have such a similar flies to the *Dejeania in the neotropics but I guess geological history proves they were once joined Manager of the UK Species Inventory in the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum, London.


Nikita Vikhrev	#6 Posted on 12-08-2012 21:29
Member Location: Posts: 9193 Joined: 24.05.05	1. Jorge: I'm back 24hours ago. 2. Chris, I also checked the http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov:8080/FMPro and found I lot of Neotropic Dejeania and a few Afrotrotical. The species level identification is not possible? Nikita Vikhrev - Zool Museum of Moscow University


ChrisR	#7 Posted on 12-08-2012 21:40
Administrator Location: Posts: 7699 Joined: 12.07.04	In the Neotropics we need a lot more work because names are often pretty meaningless, due to the diversity and the bad work of predecessors ... as you know. In the Afrotropics it might be better ... Steve has been doing more work on this than I have, I think. There is also a manual of Afrotropical Diptera in prep. so that might help Manager of the UK Species Inventory in the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum, London.


sd	#8 Posted on 16-08-2012 22:50
Member Location: Posts: 892 Joined: 11.10.07	I think this is Dejeania bombylans but I'm not 100% sure. There are several similar tachinid genera between South America and Africa but the Tachinidae, indeed the Calypterates, evolved too late ( 10- 50 MYA, Million years ago) to be centred in Gondwana (which broke up 100 MYA). The modern distribution is actually one of residual populations after the increasingly colder climate in the Northern Hemisphere in the past 20 Million years removed all of the tropical species from the Palaearctic and Nearctic Regions. e.g Tsetse Flies are found in North American and European amber from 30 MYA. Marsupials mammals are another interesting example of biogeography. They initially evolved and radiated from North America and Asia and flourished globally with many fossil species known from Europe. The modern distribution in South America and Australia is a residual one. The entire Australian Marsupial fauna may have evolved from a single species which crossed over from Antarctica 50 MYA! For more info see for example Grimaldi and Engel "Evolution of the Insects" p539-547, p625-635. Regards, Steve


ChrisR	#9 Posted on 16-08-2012 23:33
Administrator Location: Posts: 7699 Joined: 12.07.04	Interesting stuff Steve - thanks - I might get that Manager of the UK Species Inventory in the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum, London.