Macrophya rufipes in Cheshire

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Lupercal
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:58 am

Macrophya rufipes in Cheshire

Post by Lupercal »

Macrophya rufipes in Cheshire:

While collecting flies (Diptera) at Weaver Valley Parkway, Winsford (SJ655668) on 26 June 2012, I spotted numerous individuals of a very strikingly coloured and unfamiliar sawfly feeding at umbellifer inflorescences. Its long hind femora served to distinguish it from Tenthredo as a Macrophya species, and Its red-banded black body, clear yellow fore and middle legs, and mostly bright red hind femora quickly enabled a determination of Macrophya rufipes using Benson's 1952 RES key. He describes it as being "locally abundant in England SE of the Humber/Severn line". Checking the grid map on the NBN Gateway reveals a similar distribution pattern with the odd record from South Wales. This would therefore appear to be a considerable northerly extension of its range. All specimens examined were males. Vouchers retained and the records will be added to RODIS in due course.

The only other sawflies in attendance were Tenthredo arcuata (much the dominant species) and a few Tenthredo atra.

Bill Hardwick

anno
Posts: 178
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 9:50 am
Location: Penketh

Re: Macrophya rufipes in Cheshire

Post by anno »

Superb record - NBN Gateway data is a bit sparse for this species - might have a look for this myself :)

Cheers,

Anno

Chraig
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 12:53 pm
Location: Cheadle, Cheshire

Re: Macrophya rufipes in Cheshire

Post by Chraig »

Thanks for sharing this. I am always interested to know what folk are finding out there. What type of flies are you looking for and did you find any ?

Thanks,
Craig

Lupercal
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:58 am

Re: Macrophya rufipes in Cheshire

Post by Lupercal »

Hi Craig,

I work most families of Diptera, so was not searching for anything specific - but I certainly got plenty of specimens. Nothing stood out as being of especial interest, but then it's often the smaller and/or obscure species that turn out to be the least common. As yet I'm several field trips behind this one in terms of identification. so I look forward to discovering what, if any, particular dipterous goodies it produced. I've certainly had a few good fly records elsewhere this season including some unexpected first county records. Note to self: must get round to publishing a few details on the Diptera Forum.

Cheers

Bill

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