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What should I use to identify Heleomyzidae to species level?

Many thanks


Pierre-Nicolas

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Mon cher Pierre-Nicolas,

As you are a Diptera specialist you should start to verify all known Catalogues, i.e. the Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera.

Unfortunately, there is no one key for its identifications.
There are some old papers but without types examination you will not be sure which species is really correctly determined.
The main papers regarding the West-Europaean Heleomyzid are those made by Czerny (1909-1937). See Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera (vol. 10 from 1984). A key to Bristish heleomyzid given by Collin (1943) was also good !
But please note, that a lot of species has been described after the second World War !

Andrzej
(a specialist in Heleomyzidae s. lato)

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Hi Andrej,

So if I understand well, without any referece collection it would be difficult for me to identify my material.
May I ask you if you'd be interested by its identification?

What do you mean by Heleomyzidae sensu lato, what are the other families?

Have a nice week-end,


Pierre-Nicolas

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A very interesting question Pierre-Nicolas All of the subfamilies of Heleomyzidae have been commonly recognized as families in the past, but are now included within the Heleomyzidae (Borboropsidae, Heteromyzidae, Rhinotoridae and Trixoscelididae), as well as taxa of lower rank in (Chiropteromyzidae, Cnemospathidae and Notomyzidae).As I understand this but could you confirm this please Andrzej.I can then modify my texts. Robert

Robert

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Accord !.
It is not easy dispute about it when you are an expert .
The last generic review (except Old world genera) has been made in 1985 by McAlpine, D.K., but the last infos about the family(ies) limits is given by Laszlo Papp in the Contribution to a Manual of .... in 1998
Andrzej

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There is quite an excellent key in the Magyar Allatvilaga. It is written by Laszlo Papp. The only problem is that it is in Hungarian.

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Dear Rud !. Explain please, how many Heleomyzid species (or genera ?) are into the book included from the West Palaearctic and how many are recognized ?.
Andrzej

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Ruud, you mean Fauna Hungariae?

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Hi Paul,
I hope it is a rhetorical question only ?.
Andrzej

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No, I just wanted confirmation. My Hungarian is not such that I am certain that Magyar Allatvilaga and Fauna Hungariae mean the same. though I can hardly imagine Papp doing two keys on the Hungarian fauna.

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fore sure, sorry, I am used to the Hungarian name. When writing the name of Laszlo Papp I always have to think carefully, since an hungarian would write Papp Laszlo. Sometimes it is good to be able to speak and read Hungarian, sometimes it has its disadvantages, apparantly

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Hi,
some years have passed now since this question was asked...

Are there any recent papers concerning ID of Heleomyzidae lately? Or is it still best to rely on Czerny and Collin's papers?

I have some specimens still waiting for ID ;-)

Thank you!
Bye, Jonas

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I would be very interested too. Last summer I collected a large number of Heleomyzidae with beer traps and basically Bei-Bienko is the only usable key I have from this area.

Jari

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Jari, can you write me any results of your beer trapping? I use it regularly in the Czech Republic (with my wife Katerina Dvorakova). Only Suillia spp. are in our beer traps. We would highly appreciate all available results for a comparison or info about any published papers with Heleomyzidae in beer (or similar) traps!
Libor

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Yes, but please be patient because it will take time before they are all done

Jari

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"Keys to The Insects of The European Part of The USSR, Volume 5" might help. There's other families included.

http://books.goog...mp;f=false

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That "Keys to the insects of Russia..." blowave recommended is the same contribution JariF earlier referred to as "Bei-Bienko" which is just our local term. A magnificent cold-war-era aid particularly to us in Finland, since it contains all the north-western heleomyzids in Russia.

But the problem remains that female heleomyzids remain quite hard to determine, that Russian key by Gorodkov is largely based on males.

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most of the Heleomyzid i have collected belongs to the genera Suillia
i have tried Bei-benko, online key british species http://www.online-keys.net/infusions/keys/keys_view.php?key_no=19
and a key in Swedish over the Swedish speces in Hedström, L.: Svenska insektfynd-rapport 8. [Swedish insect records- report 8.] - Ent.Tidskr. 116 (3): 101-117.
But i haven't succeded to make realible determinations

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Suillia is well-covered and actually one of the most up-to-date families still in Bei-Bienko, although some species-pairs require genital studies.

The other heleomyzid genera can occasionally be more problematic, you're right.

You can put inquiries in the "General query"-department here or send pictures. Andrzej is a real heleomyzid specialist here and I am also interested in hearing about the Swedish species (although bad at determining from pictures).

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I forgot to add that I didn't know about that Hedström's article or key on Swedish heleomyzids. Sounds interesting, thanks mossnisse!