Dalgety Bay list grows to 2493

 A couple of new species on the 28th in the hoverfly Leucozona laternaria and a caterpillar of the Chamomile Shark moth

Stigmatomeria crassicornis, new to Fife from Cullaloe, March 2019

 This has been languishing on a pin since 2019, waiting for the publication of Peter Chandler's excellent new Fungus Gnats book. A common species across Britain, but as far as I know not recorded in VC85 before.

Stigmatomeria crassicornis

May Flies

A good month for new flies in May, both for me and the county 

Through the rear(ing) window

Spaziphora hydromyzina, female

Loch Gelly, NT2092

24.ii.2021 (pupa), emerged 3.iii.2021

A pupa, picked up on the edge of Loch Gelly on 24th February, bore fruit today when an adult female Spaziphora was seen bumping about in the pot. It was still teneral and its face hadn't settled in, so when I started to key it later I thought I was going to be in the Sciomyzidae! When I looked again at the now coloured-in specimen the face had receded and it was more identifiable as a scathophagid.

This is the second time I've had this species, albeit it's not on the Fife list. The previous one I remember I had sufficient doubt about it not to record. Be nice to compare if I can track down the specimen in my store boxes.

pupa

teneral, with partial balloon-face

after drying out

Limnellia fallax(Ephydridae) new to county from Cullaloe LNR

 After a 5 day campaign of tussocking and a (very small) bit of sieving of leaf litter and grass-piles my first new to county fly for 2021 is the delightful Limnellia fallax. Naturally, it's also new to Cullaloe LNR and to me.

Calliphora subalpina - Woodland Bluebottle - Braefoot Plantation

In these covid times the lack of variety in location speaks for itself, but this species I've found here, at Cullaloe LNR and Lochgelly, so there's a good chance it's at all my other patches with some woodland too. Lochgelly doesn't even have much woodland (at least, on the north bank where I would have found it. Those three are the only Fife records I know, but Calliphoridae are badly under-represented in Fife recording.

Cheilosia chrysocoma, Cullaloe LNR

An unexpected spring surprise basking on the fence in the sun. Already recorded from Fife but new to the reserve and new to me

Rhamphomyia albohirta - an empid fly from the Cullaloe Hills

Swept from Salix (willow) catkins on the 19th April, this fringed specimen appears to be new to the county. It looks like the specific name comes from the male which, rather than fringed legs, has legs with white hair.

Dark-edged Bee Fly - Bombylius major

Cullaloe Hills, and out and about elsewhere in the county now too

Campsicnemus curvipes (Dolichopodidae)

Swept at both Dalgety Bay, Mossmorran and Cullaloe in recent weeks

Leucophenga maculata - the monster fruit fly

I've had this on a pin from Dalgety Bay for going on two years. When I came across it while scouring boxes of "the unexamined" I couldn't remember catching it and can't believe I didn't give it more time since it's a bit "fancy". Maybe something else interesting happened at that time and it got bypassed.

When I keyed it to Drosophilidae I was thinking, "Yeah, right". Its wing length is 4mm! Well, would you believe it - it is in fact the "monster" drosophilid Leucophenga maculata. There aren't many records on NBN and none in Scotland, though who can guess how much that means. Certainly wasn't on the Fife list (though it will be on the new one!)

Children of a Lesser Dungfly - the ice cream tub bait trap and the lesser dung flies

One family that's doing very well on the 2020 records is the Sphaeroceridae, or lesser dung flies. So far five species have been identified (and two not!). This is a family I have an emotional tie to (yes, really) because it was one of the first monographs (Pitkin, RES) I acquired when I moved out from hoverflies.

Sphaeroceridae
Copromyza nigrina - fish-baited trap
Crumomyia fimetaria - leaf litter
Crumomyia nitida - fish-baited trap
Crumomyia roserii - fish-baited trap
Lotophila atra - leaf litter

Sieving leaf litter is always a good way to pick up a sphaerocerid or two, but a ground-level bait trap seems like a definite winner. The elevated bottle traps don't seem to catch them - I think because these flies mostly don't get very far away from the ground. This is also a good way to pick up Heleomyzidae, of which 3 species have been found in this session using this trap . One of the species was also found in the elevated bottle trap, but all three were in the low-level trap. The trap is jammed up against a ruined wall so it's probably warmer and more sheltered down there too.

Heleomyzidae
Neoleria propinqua
Scoliocentra villosa
Suillia variegata (in leaf litter, not in trap)
Tephrochlamys rufiventris

The trap design
I took an ice cream tub and cut a cross hole in the lid. The cardboard disc "filter" lets out the stink but stops things falling into the gooey mess that once was sea bass. The disc has lobes that stabilise it but I didn't draw them. Drainage holes are also not illustrated. Any sort of tub and cereal packet could be put into service this way and is essentially recycle-able. An occasional fly has flown away but once in the trap the dung flies and heleomyzids seem more-or-less happy to sit around and be potted.

Ice cream tub, fish remnants, cardboard disc

Apart from the flies this trap has yielded about 100 Catops beetles, the only one of which I gen-detted being C.tristis. And boy does it make them crazy - lots of mating pairs. I suspect there may be more than one species of Catops present. Sadly none I've taken have shown signs of fungal infection.

A modified version of this trap (larger entrance) is going to be great for silphids at some point and changing the bait up might make it a winner for dung beetles too.

NB: I always approach this trap wearing rubber gloves!

(12/02 edit: the actual tub, which has now been in place for just over a month)

Rot hole rat-tails

While wandering across a little-visited area of my new patch (Cullaloe Hills, NT1888) I noticed a rot-hole in a sycamore. Fortunately I was sporting gardening gloves for leaf litter sieving and a cursory dip revealed a nice Myathropa florea larva. A further investigation later revealed two more, but nothing additional.

Lonchaea patens, Cullaloe Hills, NT1888, 12.i.2020

A larva found in a wet pocket of felled Fraxinus trunk on the 12th January, which I initially planned to rear out. However, since I had already examined another lonchaeid larva I decided to compare this one. This one was much easier to determine with the RES Lonchaeidae book, though the other one may also give itself up eventually.

Habitus

Posterior spiracles

Head skeleton and toroidal mouthhooks

Anterior spiracle post KOH application

Various spicules, including anal (bottomlright)

Where it was found

Crumomyia roserii in the Cullaloe Hills

Caught at a fish-baited trap, this little lesser dung fly has yellow-brown tibiae as an "obvious" feature

infuscated wings

yellow tibia

pleural dusting pattern is helpful in ID