Black Muscid flies

For the past few months I have been using Fonseca's key (Handbook for the Identification of British Insects - Diptera Cyclorrhapha Calyptrata Section (b) Muscidae by E. C. M d'Assis Fonseca, 1968) to identify Muscid flies I have collected.  I was having trouble with some small black female flies which kept running to Dialytina atriceps (=Phaonia atriceps) but which definitely had only 2 posterior bristles on their mid tibae instead of the required 3. Well I think I have just solved the problem: they are Phaonia halterata. Instead of keying out before you enter the main Phaonia subkey they run right to the last couplet of the that subkey.  I now have to go back and recheck all the 20 flies I have already assigned to atriceps.  Using keys takes quite a lot of gettting used to.

Butterfly

A comma butterfly, Polygonia c-album (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae).  A bit late in the year for a butterfly but it has been a fairly warm autumn so far.

Photo taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2015-11-15.

Weevil

A fungus weevil, Platyrhinus resinosus (Coleoptera: Anthribidae).

Photo taken in Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2015-09-12.

Stiltbug

An orange stiltbug, probably Metatropis rufescens (Hemiptera: Berytidae).

Specimen taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2015-09-05.

Tachinid Fly

A male Prosena siberita (Diptera: Tachinidae) with its long proboscis.

Specimen taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2015-08-25.