[Syrphidae] Re: Graptomyza

[Dr Kumar Ghorpade]

Hi syrphidologists,
     Well Andrew Whittington may be the best working specialist on Oriental Graptomyza which fly that beautiful photograph showed. What was the flowering plant it was on ?  My entire collection of this peculiar genus is now with Chris Thompson at the U.S. NMNH, Washington, DC.  I have some recently collected specimens and hope to catch more.  Maybe Andrew, Chris and I could work up the Oriental species of Graptomyza soon ?  My concept of the Oriental Region (vide J.L. Gressitt) includes three sub-regions: the Indian, the Sino-Malayan and the Papuan-Pacific, the latter extending from the Moluccas and New Guinea to all tropical Pacific Ocean islands south to New Caledonia and New Hebrides (Vanuatu). It is about tome we biologists looked at obvious biogeographical patterns of species distribution rather than document them by political units which are of absolutely no importance to the flies and other wildlife !  
     Just to tell you all also that having now relocated to Dharwar Agricultural University (east of Goa) I will be going on my first new major expedition, this time to the Western Himalayas from 20th June until end July before te monsoon (rains) really start in earnest. The mountain ecosystems near Dehra Dun, Mussoorie and Simla will be checked out. I welcome any requests for particular taxa that some of you may want me to look out for on this trip. Cheers,
  KUMAR.     

Bastiaan Wakkie <bwakkie at syrphidae.com> wrote:
    Thank you all for the quick replies! 

Ones in a while this person in Indonesia is sending me photos in order to ID them. Till genus is mostly goes well, till now ... and he is happy with it too. 
I encouraged the person to also catch the flies and send them over in the future in order to be more specific in naming. We will see how that will work out...

So this Graptomyza is currently somewhere in a package between Indonesia and Belgium :)

Cheers,
Bastiaan

http://www.syrphidae.com


On Thu, 2006-06-01 at 09:13 -0400, christian thompson wrote:   
Very interesting, Heikki:    This as Graham Rotheray will tell you parallels the development in New World Copestylum where a number of species have developed long (rat)-tailed maggot forms and in live in phytotelmata, such as bromeliads, etc.    There is also another common Graptomyza in Australia and the Solomons which has been collected around out-door privies. So, I suspect it may be like Ornida and breed in them.    Oh, well ...    So many interesting flower flies, so little time.    Cheers    F. Christian Thompson  Systematic Entomology Lab., USDA  c/o Smithsonian Institution  MRC-0169 NHB  PO Box 37012  Washington, DC 20013-7012  (202) 382-1800 voice  (202) 786-9422 FAX  cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov e-mail  www.diptera.org  web site    >>> heikki.hippa at nrm.se 06/01/06 08:12AM >>>  Dear Bastiaan, Thomas, Andrew and others,    The species is not dissimilar to one which was collected by Thomas Romig, also by me, in Malaysia. What is interesting with that species is the
 larva. It is rat-tailed like in Eristalini and lives inside bamboo stems on which woodpeckers or other animals have made holes. I have a few of these larvae at me and have intended to describe them, but it has not been done.    Best wishes, Heikki    Ursprungligt meddelande-----  Från: syrphidae-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:syrphidae-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk]För Bastiaan Wakkie  Skickat: den 29 maj 2006 12:03  Till: Hoverfly discussion list  Ämne: [Syrphidae] identity        Hi all,      I received this beautiful photo of a Syrphid but have no clue what family it even is. Anyone?    The photo is taken in Indonesia.      Thanks,     _______________________________________________  Syrphidae mailing list  Syrphidae at lists.nottingham.ac.uk  http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/syrphidae  
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Dr Kumar Ghorpade, B.Sc.(Agri.),M.Sc.,Ph.D (Entomol.). 
Smithsonian Institution (U.S.A.) Postdoctoral Research Fellow (1982-1983) researching Oriental Syrphidae, Sciomyzidae and Ephydridae (Diptera). 
Currently: Post-Graduate Teacher & Research Associate in Systematic Entomology, Department of Agricultural Entomology,University of Agricultural Sciences, Krishi Nagar, Dharwar 580 005, Karnataka (INDIA). 
Post to: P.O. Box 221, K.C. Park Post Office, Dharwar 580 008, INDIA. 
				
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