A few common or garden flies

12th August 2014 - Topsham

I know they can be a nuisance, I know some of them spread diseases and I'll admit many have rather unsavoury lifestyles but take a close look at a fly and tell me they're not amazing. I've been pottering about the garden with my macro lens and, as usual, it's been mostly flies. Conditions haven't been perfect but occasionally the sun goes in (photos of shiny insects in bright sun look dreadful) and the wind drops (with exposure times of 1/5 second you don't want the subject moving at all). Here's a few mostly common species, all named using the appropriate identification keys.

Lucilia sericata Calliphoridae - 12/8/2014 Topsham

This is a common greenbottle (also known as the sheep blowfly) Lucilia sericata. Identified by the pale basicosta (that whitish nubbin at the base of the wing) and, as it's a male, by the widely separated eyes (Erzinçlioglu 1996). There are seven British species of Lucilia and this is one of only two which are safely named from a photo, for the rest you're going to need a male specimen and a microscope.

Eristalis tenax Syrphidae - 12/8/2014 Topsham

Here's a very common hoverfly Eristalis tenax, also known as a drone fly as it's a honey bee mimic - even down to the fake pollen baskets on it back legs. Identification is pretty straightforward based on the broad black stripe down the face and vertical bands on the eyes (Stubbs & Falk 2002).

Scathophaga stercoraria Scathophagidae - 12/8/2014 Topsham

Another easily recognised species, this is the common yellow dung fly Scathophaga stercoraria, safely told from the other nine British Scathophaga spp. by the conspicuously black antennae (Ball 2007).

Nemorilla floralis Tachinidae -12/8/2014 Topsham

This one, a parasite fly or Tachinid, is rather less straightforward to identify. It does show the general appearance of the family - strongly kinked medial wing vein, 'delta wing' posture and it's strikingly bristly; another useful pointer is the slow purposeful hunting flight when searching for a host (in this case caterpillars) in which to lay its eggs. I've photographed this species a few times in the garden over recent years, identified using Belshaw 1993 and confirmed by the experts at diptera.info.

References

Ball, S.G. 2007; Key to the British Scathophagidae (Diptera), Version 3.1
Belshaw, R. 1993. Tachinid flies. Diptera: Tachinidae. Handbooks for the identification of British Insects. Royal Entomological Society of London 10, Part 4a(i).
Erzinçlioglu, Z. 1996; Blowflies. Naturalists' Handbooks 23. The Richmond Publishing Co.
Stubbs, A.E. & Falk, S.J. 2002. British Hoverflies. British Entomological and Natural History Society.

Return to Macro

20th April 2013 - Topsham

When I'm out and about in 'birding mode' my approach to photography is simple. I carry a modest lens - just an old Nikon 300mm f/4 with a x1.4 teleconverter - which is a compromise between weight and magnification. I almost never use a tripod for birds - I can usually hand hold at the shutter speeds needed for moving birds. And of course, I scan the middle distance and the sky, not the ground at my feet. Photographing insects is so fundamentally different that, as well as different equipment, I almost need a quite different frame of mind. I suppose It's just like switching a camera's mode option from 'birding' to 'macro'. Except it's more complicated: set to manual focus, minimum aperture, lowest ISO, mirror lock-up and cable release. Of course I also need a different lens - I use a Sigma 180mm f/3.5 macro - and a sturdy tripod and head - a Uni-loc with a Manfrotto Proball 468 RC4; which is one of the reasons I tend to walk slow and not far when looking for insects.

It's been far too long since I did any macrophotography so I wondered if I'd have to learn it all again. Yesterday I dusted off my macro lens and tripod, and tried to remember the techniques.

At this point I remembered two of the problems that used to make life difficult: bright sun and wind. Insect cuticles are often shiny - not so much here but think of bluebottles and leaf beetles - and exposing for dazzling highlights gives black shadows and can kill detail. The effect of strong sun on green vegetation is, if anything, even worse. The simplest solution is to shade the subject - a hand often works - but there's a risk the insect will move. The tiniest of air movement can cause leaves to shake but it's rarely continuous and sometimes I just wait for the lull. If that doesn't work then I just look for insects on the ground or on tree trunks.

I spent a little time in the garden re-familiarising myself with the method and found a few things to photograph. This fly was fairly co-operative, it sat still while I positioned the camera and shaded it. I'm not too disappointed with the result; it could be sharper but it is cropped quite a bit. The species looks like Scathophaga furcata (Say, 1832) based on the dark shaded cross-veins on each wing and the dark stripe on the front femur; although I'm not sure it's possible to be certain from this photo. My tentative identification was made using Stuart Ball's provisional key (Ball, 2007).

References:

Ball, Stuart G. 2007; Key to the British Scathophagidae (Diptera), Version 3.1