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taxonomy and ethology
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Miscellaneous Updates

October 26, 2013

It's been a while since I last posted. During the interim I've made a number of small changes and additions. I had intended to list them all in one go, here, once they reached a "critical mass." Problem is, I didn't write them down, thinking that each was too insignificant to warrant picking up a pencil. Now when I want to list them I can only remember a few.

First, I replaced a number of habitus photographs with hopefully better versions. I replaced the original blurry analog photo of the female of Laphria flavicollis with a stacked digital version. I also replaced the stacked photos I had for both male and female of Laphria sacrator with new stacked photos having better, more diffuse lighting.

Second, I added several annotated references to the bibliography, namely Dennis and Barnes (2013) and Cannings (2010). The complete references are:

Dennis, D. S., and J. K. Barnes. 2013. Pupal cases of four Nearctic species of Laphria (Diptera: Asilidae). Zootaxa 3681(4):478-492. (L. canis, L. ferox, L. macquarti, and L. posticata; key provided to pupal cases of 11 species (including listed four) of Laphria s. lat. Generic key also provided to distinguish pupal caes of Laphria s. lat. from those of Andrenosoma and Lampria [note: Lampria is in the Laphriini, Andrenosoma is not].).

Cannings, R. A. 2010. Robber flies (Insecta: Diptera: Asilidae) of the montane cordillera ecozone. 22-page web PDF, no page numbers (21 spp. total in genus listed; for Laphria s. str.--L. astur, L. asturina, L. columbica, L. fernaldi, L. partitor, L. sackeni, L. insignis, and L. posticata; for Laphria (Choerades)--L. aimatis, L. felis, L. ferox, L. milvina, L. vivax, L. sadales, and L. gilva; for other groups--L. asackeni, L. vultur, and L. janus in one, and L. franciscana, L. index, and L. scorpio in the other; Fig. 4, color photo of female L. felis.)

It appears from the breakdown of species into subgroups as if Cannings read the listings in my PhD. disseratation but for some reason that is not listed in the bibliography.

I also annotated several old references, namely Bromley (1924), Bromley (1933), Coquillett (1910a),and Curran (1930). The complete annotations are:

Bromley, S. W. 1924. New robber flies (Asilidae, Diptera). Occ. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 5:125-127. (pp. 126-127, description of Laphria altitudinum; Text-fig 1-2, L. sericea, 3-4, L. altitudinum).

Bromley, S. W. 1933. Additions to the Ohio list of robber flies (Diptera: Asilidae). Ohio J. Sci. 33:204 (Bombomima champlainii).

Coquillett, D. W. 1910a. New genera and species of the North American Diptera. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 12:124-131 (p. 124, description of Dasyllis semitecta) .

Curran, C. H. 1930. Report on the Diptera collected at the station for the study of insects, Harriman Interstate Park, New York. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 61:21-115 (p. 41, 5 spp. listed--Bombomima grossa, B. thoracica, B. sacrator, B. flavicollis, and Laphria canis).

Last, all the links for the Type Database at the Museum of Comparative Zoology were broken. For some reason, the MCZ changed the way they reference species pages. This broke the links for Dasyllus astur Osten Sacken, D. insignis Banks, D. macquarti Banks, D. divisor Banks, D. virginica Banks, D. sackeni Banks, and D. partitor Banks in the Laphria s. str. sections, and the links for those as well as the ones for Laphria rapax osten Sacken, L. vultur Osten Sacken, L. xanthippe Williston, L. pubescens Williston, L. aktis McAtee, L. dispar Banks, L. altitudinum Bromley, L. sackeni Wilcox, and L. flavibarbis Harris in the Catalog. These links are now fixed.