{"id":800,"date":"2012-03-19T20:44:49","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T20:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/?page_id=800"},"modified":"2012-04-12T09:09:37","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T09:09:37","slug":"keys-scutellar-bristles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/tutorials\/keys-scutellar-bristles\/","title":{"rendered":"Keys: Scutellar bristles"},"content":{"rendered":"

(work in progress)<\/h3>\n

The orientation of the scutellar bristles is a very important feature in the keys and these bristles can be misaligned very easily during capture so it usually produces a lot of consternation in novices. This need not be the case if you just follow a few simple rules of thumb.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples of specimens with crossed apical scutellars:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Notice that in species with crossed bristles both bristles usually curve slightly inwards. In species with diverging or parallel scutellars they are usually straight or even curving outwards – this is a very useful fact when the bristles have been misaligned.<\/p>\n

Here are examples with diverging or parallel bristles:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[insert photo \u2013 diverging & erect bristles \u2013 Meigenia<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

No apicals at all \u2013 note the lack of empty sockets at the tip of the scutellum, showing that this is not a damaged specimen:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Erect apical scutellars \u2013 not a great shot but you can see that they are about 45-degrees to the horizontal when viewed laterally. These are from a Phryxe <\/em>so if you could view them dorsally you would see that they are also crossed:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[insert photo \u2013 hair-like apicals \u2013 Blondelia nigripes<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

Some examples of damaged bristles, starting with a missing crossed apical scutellar \u2013 note the remaining one is strongly curved inwards:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[insert photos of more mangled bristles]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(work in progress) The orientation of the scutellar bristles is a very important feature in the keys and these bristles can be misaligned very easily…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":822,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-800","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":916,"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/800\/revisions\/916"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}