[Syrphidae] belgian records revisited...

Wed Feb 25 12:17:07 GMT 2009

Thank you all for your reactions. This is what mailing lists are for.

In the collection, next to the pupa was a specimen of a freshly emerged adult (wings not fully pumped up) that was in fact a specimen of Microdon mutabilis/myrmicae. On the label of the pupa were also notes on it being bred out. So that's why we - who had no real previous experience with determination of Microdon pupae - wrongly thought for the determination of the pupa we only had to look between these 2 species. So probably there has happened some mislabeling here. 
I will adjust the report on the site as soon as possible and this record will of course also be adjusted in the Belgian database.
We have contacts with people of the Belgian Formicidae working group and this spring we will probably be looking for pupae of Microdon myrmicae on a place were the host ant is found. As the record of M. mutabilis sl. has fallen away now, it would also be a good idea to look for this species also. The eastern elevated parts of Belgium hold more than one arctic relict species so maybe we still have a chance to find a real M. mutabilis.

grtz & thanks for the remarks
Pieter Vantieghem

--- On Wed, 2/25/09, Karsten Schonrogge <ksc at ceh.ac.uk> wrote:
From: Karsten Schonrogge <ksc at ceh.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: AW: [Syrphidae] 5th International Symposium on Syrphidae - secondannouncement and registration form
To: syrphidae at lists.nottingham.ac.uk, ulrich.schmid.smns at naturkundemuseum-bw.de, pvtlvd at yahoo.com
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 10:05 AM

I finally found out why I was copied into the message and have seen the images on the website. I would agree with Ulrich in that the puparia I've seen of M. mutabilis were never that deeply reticulated and it does look much more like M. analis.

Since the original paper on M. myrmicae I have had reliable records for this species from various places around Europe mainly from an EU funded project that was looking for Maculinea butterflies in Myrmica nests and where I could inject an interest in Microdon. However, I haven't heard, seen or read about M. mutabilis and have been left with the impression that apart from 5 populations in the British Isles I am aware of in the western palaearctic there might be some in Scandinavia and potentially in some mountainous - alpine regions. If you have any good records of M. mutabilis and possibly of the ants they live with, I would be really interested.

Cheers

  Karsten

Karsten  Schönrogge

Associate Editor: Insect Conservation & Diversity 
(http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1752-458X&site=1)
CEH Wallingford, 
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Skype: karsten schonrogge, Wallingford, UK

>>> ulrich.schmid.smns at naturkundemuseum-bw.de 25/02/2009 07:41 >>>

Hi Pieter,
please have a second look on your Microdon puparium. Looks like the puparium of Microdon analis, as described in the paper in Volucella 7, 111-124, 2004.
Kind regards
Ulrich 

******************************************************* 
Ulrich Schmid 
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Bildung und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit 
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart
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70191 Stuttgart 
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www.volucella.de

Von: syrphidae-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:syrphidae-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] Im Auftrag von pieter vantieghem
Gesendet: Dienstag, 24. Februar 2009 20:10
An: Hoverfly discussion list
Betreff: Re: [Syrphidae] 5th International Symposium on Syrphidae - secondannouncement and registration form

A report of a visit of some Belgian syrphid enthusiastics to the the syrphid collection of the Belgian Natural History Museum can be found here.

greetings 
Pieter Vantieghem

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