Neotropical barkfly comes to Skye!

I took myself up to the cemetery this afternoon, the sun was out and there was a distinct warmth to the air. I had my net in hand, ready to swipe at each and every fly I disturbed from the rough grazing land. Approximately 10,000 Yellow Dung Flies later, I decided to quit and go beat the windswept Yew bush that grows at the entrance to the cemetery instead. 

Still no sign of the Daffodil Fly Norellia spinipes, just Scathophaga stercoraria by the bucketload

Despite being the only Yew bush for miles around (so far as I know) I've had some nice microfungi and scale insects from it before. What I really wasn't expecting was an insect new to NW Scotland!

Whenever I find a barkfly, I visit the excellent National Barkfly Recording Scheme and usually manage to come to a specific ID without too much bother. Today was just such a day, no real issues with the key...ooh 'eck, that's a frippin good record! 

Note the dark line from antenna base to eye, plus lack of a stripe running vertically between the eyes

The dark line that runs from beside the antennal base to the eye is actually a dark red. This line then continues along the sides of the neck and onto the thorax in the form of an uneven wavy line, it's quite a distinctive feature. Note that the rest of the head is pale apart from a small bump which houses the ocelli, it being the same dark red colour as the wavy line. The antennae are pale-based but soon darken up approximately a third of their length towards the tip.

But it was the wing venation combined with a distinctive pattern of darker patches that really firmed up the ID of this specimen for me. That's when I got a tad excited...

Image taken from the National Barkfly Recording Scheme's key to species

Check out the "distinctive wing pattern" and "Dark patches" arrowed in the above pic, then compare with the forewings of my specimen

Slightly crumpled, but I reckon that's a positive match!

Vein Cu2 was indeed without setae

All of which leads me to a species called Chilenocaecilius ornatipennis, one I've rather unsurprisingly never seen before - mainly because it's a South American species that was first discovered this side of the Atlantic (and Equator!) in Ireland in 2015 and then in Britain the following year!!!! I have absolutely no idea of the dispersal mechanism used, seemingly the Irish 2015 records are the first known records of this species away from its native range of Chile and Argentina. Quick bit of blurb from the National Barkfly Recording Scheme here. 

My very first British 'neotropical' insect!

Just wait until I tell Murdo from the Highland Biological Recording Group about this, he'll soon have his army of entomologists out putting dots on the map!


In other news, I discovered some decent looking habitat just downslope of the cemetery....