Tag: Sciomyzidae

48. Tabanidae – dilemma

So far I have been a virtuous dipterist, only counting fly families that I have caught myself. But spending a week in the company of experts was bound to bring problems, problems that I brought on myself by telling everyone on the first evening that I was on a family quest. So it wasn’t long before, like a lady empid, I was being presented with fly-gifts by eminent dipterists to tempt me from the path of righteousness. Easy enough when it was things like enormously-antennaed sciomyzids, a stylish scathophagid, a colourful dolichopid – these were mere boxes of chocolates and flowers that I could gratefully accept without compromising my integrity since they were from families I had already caught.††

  • Sciomyzidae – Sepedon sphegea
  • Scathophagidae – Pogonota barbata
  • Dolichopodidae – Argyra leucocephala
Tabanis sudeticus, a male

But what of this – the most impressive fly that I have yet had the pleasure of meeting – caught twenty yards from where I was standing by someone putting more effort into their sweeping than I was. It’s a (much) bigger version of the more familiar cleg whose silent approach and stealthy bite I have often suffered from in the past. I wanted it, I needed the family (Tabanidae) for my Year of the fly mission, surely counting it wouldn’t be right. In my confusion I submitted to the humiliation of what I was informed was the traditional fly-on-the-face selfie. After narrowly avoiding crawling up my nose it dropped off, hovered for a moment to warm up its wings, and then took of like a torpedo, saving me from having to decide about whether to keep it or not. †

For a day or two I wrestled with the issue of whether or not I could add Tabanidae to my list, my conscience fighting desire in a finely balanced contest until, happily (!), a cleg found me out and sucked my blood until I got a tube over it. Not quite as large a beast as T. sudeticus but the eyes are dazzling, as is the glossy frons between the eyes and the purposeful mouthparts. Note also the quality of the image obtained on a modern microscope – dilemma? What dilemma.

23. Sciomyzidae – sonnet 116

I have to confess that my interest in flies buys me no spousal brownie points. This is despite her mother being an avid Dipterist, albeit with an unconventional, Dyson-sized pooter and a simplified, but functional taxonomy (“Dirty fly”). I probably didn’t brag about my entomological weakness when we were first becoming an item, distracting her successfully with lavish dinners and romantic holidays. Twenty something years on, becoming somewhat bolder, I have been introducing fly collecting as a normal household activity and flies as an unremarkable topic of dinnertime conversation. I have to report that so far I have found very few weaknesses in her general distaste for their insect charms.

One of the problems has been the bees at the bottom of the garden which were not always as gentle as they are now, and when my first clumsy beekeeping activities coincided with shrieks from elsewhere in the garden, I knew that my cause was set even further back. They don’t help by peppering the whites on the washing line with tell-tale yellow polka-dot droppings when they stream out of the hive on the first warm day of spring. More entomological rancour comes from the clothes moths (Endrosis sarcitrella, since you ask) which I am blamed for having introduced on two ragged dolls, mementos of my pre-marital travels in Peru. Even travel has insect-related difficulties since, however heroic my counter measures, each mosquito bite she receives blossoms into in angry red and itchy blotch.

However, not willing to give up, and knowing her love of cooking and a good feed, I wondered if the way to endear me and my six-legged friends to her might be through food. So since it is the Year of the Fly I cooked her the most delicious fly pie, replacing the usual apple leaf decorations with something much more interesting. Well, I thought it looked delicious ….

Maybe now I have the answer. Our gardening duties are split between us, with mowing, fruit and potatoes being my responsibility, while she does the vegetables. Every spring her greenhouse becomes home to hundreds of pampered seedlings. Then, as delicate adolescents they are allowed outside on sunny days to toughen up, but there is a strict evening curfew and they are back under their glass duvet before a sneaky frost can nip them. Eventually they come of age and are planted out in a carefully prepared, weed-free plot, fending for themselves with just a yoghurt pot slug collar for protection. Then the carnage begins. Leaf by leaf, plant by plant, a nightly toll is taken by slugs and snails streaming across the lawn from cracks in the walls, from hiding places under boards or piles of mulch. When a row of carrot infants disappears overnight, my attention is brought to mollusc-sheltering patches of long grass that have been missed by imperfect mowing.

Elgiva cucularia

The fly that will charm her is this perky fly with its eager antennae and business-like spotted wings. It’s a member of the family Sciomyzidae, whose larvae eat snails and slugs. This particular one was swept from the edge of a large pond, and its larvae only eat aquatic snails. But there must be others who could help protect her seedlings. I feel sure that, if I can find the right way to bring up the subject, this is the family that will bring about matrimonial harmony. Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments …