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 Psychodidae - Any Help Appreciated
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| Calilasseia |
Posted on 04-11-2014 08:17
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 Member Location: Posts: 90 Joined: 20.09.11 |
I was taking part in a moth trapping session (dated 18th October 2014) along with a fellow entomologist, at a UK location (Ordnance Survey Grid Reference SJ 5479 8353), when something unusual turned up amongst the moth fauna. It was tiny (wingspan just 3 mm), furry in appearance, and although generally moth-like, looked like no Lepidoptera I have ever seen. After a fair amount of searching, I was pointed to a Family of Diptera known as the Psychodidae. Lo and behold, my aberrant specimen appears to belong to this clade! However, if it is at all possible, despite the less than ideal quality of the attached photo, I wonder if anyone could narrow down the ID a little? I know I'm asking a lot here, but if any of the experts here can offer some suggestions, I'll regard any additional data as duly educational about this frankly amazing looking Diptera clade. The individual photographed bears some resemblance to Phenumia extricata from the diptera.info gallery, though I'm aware that any such resemblance may be purely coincidental, and that I may have alighted upon yet another of those taxonomic groups requiring detailed dissection, before one can even move to Genus level, let alone species level. However, in anticipation that I might have alighted upon something that can be identified to species level, even despite the difficulties I encountered in trying to obtain a photograph of the specimen in focus, whilst brushing aside various moths behaving in hyperactive manner under a mercury vapour lamp! So, here's the photograph of the specimen in question. Data as follows: Location: NW England, OS Grid Reference SJ 5479 8353) Date: 18th October 2014, specimen photographed at 20:27 GMT Conditions: uncommonly warm for October in the UK, ambient temperature around 15°C |
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| Gunnar M Kvifte |
Posted on 06-11-2014 12:10
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Member Location: Posts: 436 Joined: 18.08.09 |
Pneumia is probably the right genus, but it is still a guess. Psychodid taxonomy is still very much reliant on genital anatomy (although dissections are not strictly necessary). There are good characters in the coloration of different hair patches, but since they tend to fall off all too easily the job of associating them with genital characters is not an easy one. Hopefully there will be a colour atlas of European Psychodidae some day, but the road to get there is long and winding... If you have the specimen and want to try to identify it, there is an excellent handbook to the British species published by Dipterist's Digest. It is written by Withers (1989) and can be bought for 4£ at http://www.dipteristsforum.org.uk/sgb_dipterists_digest.php. You can also send the specimen to me  If you photograph more moth flies in the future, it will be useful to also collect the specimens and get them identified -- every wing pattern/genitalia association helps! |
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| Calilasseia |
Posted on 09-11-2014 14:14
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Member Location: Posts: 90 Joined: 20.09.11 |
Many thanks for the reply - I'll bear this in mind, and if I encounter more Psychodids in future, try to collect some specimens and photos, given what you've said about matching images to dissection data, and how valuable any new data will be. |
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but don't see the image in the post.