{"id":25,"date":"2011-08-29T00:22:39","date_gmt":"2011-08-29T00:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/?page_id=25"},"modified":"2012-03-19T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T16:38:10","slug":"rhinophorids-subscutellums","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/articles\/rhinophorids-subscutellums\/","title":{"rendered":"Subscutellums and rhinophorids"},"content":{"rendered":"

It doesn’t take long to learn to seperate tachinids from other calyptrate flies by the characteristic bulging subscutellum. However, there is a small family of flies called the Rhinophoridae, which also have a subscutellum and these will really confuse you if you can’t spot them amongst the tachinids.<\/p>\n

Some species of rhinophorid are fairly common and you are bound to find them – even in your garden – where they are also parasitoids of invertebrates (mainly woodlice). Rhinophorids behave very like tachinids – they scurry around on low vegetation – and they are quite bristly, like tachinids.<\/p>\n

Although rhinophorids have a subscutellum their subscutellum is usually reduced in size with the upper side partially membranous. However, this isn’t easy to see so I have taken some photos down a microscope to illustrate the point – first the ‘real thing’, 2 tachinid subscutellums:<\/p>\n

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

(above) Exorista rustica<\/em> (male, subscutellum) looking from behind and slightly above.\u00a0Phasia hemiptera<\/em> (male, subscutellum) looking from behind and slightly above.<\/p>\n

Now the tricky ones – the rhinophorids. Note the subscutellum is less evenly curved and often shows a well demarked membranous area on the upper surface:<\/p>\n

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

(above) Two images of Paykullia maculata<\/em> (male, subscutellum – lateral view) – note the light-brown membrane that joins the darker chintinous part to the underside of the scutellum.<\/p>\n

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(above) Two images of Rhinophora lepida<\/em> (male, subscutellum – lateral view). This species is much smaller and consequently it is more difficult to see the light-brown membrane. But you can see that in profile the subscutellum is angled and not curved smoothly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>(right) Lastly, the common rhinophorids have a large petiole on the wing and an angled vein-M – as on this picture of Paykullia maculata<\/em>. This species also has very distinctive shading along the wing veins, which makes it quite easy to identify.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the cell is petiolate but vein-M is curved then consider that you might have a Phasia<\/em> sp.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(many thanks to Peter Chandler for allowing me to take photographs of these specimens in the BENHS collection)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It doesn’t take long to learn to seperate tachinids from other calyptrate flies by the characteristic bulging subscutellum. However, there is a small family of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":176,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-25","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":769,"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25\/revisions\/769"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tachinidae.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}