So the first bottle trap experiment failed due to hard weather, but finally last week I was able to get a robust trap with fish bait going. Last night I emptied said trap and it had a predictable set of inmates. I should have a photo of the trap but when I set it I'd forgotten my phone/camera. Doh! I swapped out the "capture chamber" so I can photo it again anyway.
Most obvious in the trap was Calliphora vicina, finally. This may have appeared earlier had I set the trap nearer to the cottages end of the reserve, but it's an inevitable species both in bait traps and on sunny surfaces. Then there was one (only one?!) Dryomyza. Usualy they show up early in numbers, but the trap wasn't out that long and not in its usual place. A couple of Heleomyzidae were Tephrochlaena oraria and Heteromyza commixta. The rest of group was made up of a small collection of Drosophila subobscura. All common species on the reserve, but nice to get the dipteran ball rolling a bit. Surprisingly absent was Sylvicola cintus, which I had in 10s if not 100s last year, but maybe that's specific to location. The trap was previously over a wet seepage in a different part of the reserve. Maybe a second trap's required.
This week will hopefully see me swishing a kite net at Willows and the game will be seriously on. As usual, I expect my capabilities will be over-run over the space of about 48 hours. Current dipteran tally - 32 species.
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| Calliphora vicina |
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| Heteromyza commixta |
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| Dryomyza flaveola |
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| Drosophila subobscura |
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