Drosophilid Flies

From last Summer, two small orange flies.  At the time, I assumed that they were female and male of the same species, but more recently Paul Beuk has identified them as Leucophenga maculata (lower left) and a Drosophila sp (both Diptera: Drosophilidae) .

Photo taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-08-03.

A few weeks ago I came across what I think was another L. maculata in the background of a fungus I was photographing:

It seemed to be laying eggs in the decaying wood that the fungus was growing in.

These two photos were taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2011-04-30.

Two Black Tachinid Flies

A black Tachinid fly, probably Zophomyia temula (Diptera: Tachinidae).  

About 10 metres further along the field I photographed the following which, at first, I assumed to be the same species.

This one looks slightly fatter and has more white on the thorax and behind the eyes.  But I thought that these might be just male-female differences.  However, what convinced me that it was a different species was the outer cross-vein at the trailing edge: here it is distinctly concave while in Z. temula it is more straight.  It is a Thelaira sp, probably Thelaira nigrina = Thelaira negripes (Diptera: Tachinidae).  The only other UK species in this genus is Thelaira solivaga but this is less common (see here).

Both photos taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-05-20.

Sawfly

A black and yellow sawfly, probably Macrophya monatana (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae).

Photos taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-05-09.

Update on Sun 2011-06-05 by Tristram Brelstaff

This is a female; the males of Macrophya montana are almost all black.

Hoverfly

A female hoverfly, probably a Parasyrphus punctulatus (Diptera: Syrphidae).  A large part of its left wing is missing but, when I got too close, the fly flew off with no apparent difficulty.

Photo taken in Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-04-25.

Tachinid Fly

A dark blue Tachinid fly, a Dufouria sp (Diptera: Tachinidae).  Identified by Stephane Lebrun and Chris Raper.  There are two UK species in this genus: Dufouria chalybeata and Dufouria nigrita which are hard to distinguish from photos (see here for details), though the former is said to be more common.

Photos taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-05-16.