The Society for the study of flies (Diptera)

Hi Grant,
Your pictures above are of a male specimen of Scathophaga stercoria and you may well be correct in assuming that daffodils are attractive to many species of flies at this time of year (perhaps because they represent a nectar source rather than a heat source).

However, Norellia spinipes is attracted to daffodils because its immature stages live within the the plant, possibly exclusively. I quote below the text of an unpublished article summarising the current knowledge of this species in Britain.

"This rather distinctive species was first recorded in 1965 (Chandler and
Stubbs, 1969; Chandler, 1970) and has been found mainly in deciduous
woodland or in gardens in Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Bucks, Berks, Herts,
Cambs., Hunts. and Middlesex (Allen, 1983; Godfrey, 1989; Smith, 1996;
Smith & Vardy, 1988) where it is associated with daffodils (Narcissus). The
larvae mine the leaves and pupate at the base of the plant and sometimes
damage the bulbs (Smith, 1989). Most records are for the Spring (April to
June) when adults are usually found on daffodil leaves, but there are also
October records which seem to always relate to females. No specimens
earlier than 1965 have come to light, although it is not uncommon at some
localities within its limited range. This suggests it is a recent colonist and
was probably introduced from the continent in imported bulbs"

My interest derives from finding a colony of the species in Worcestershire (rather further North than reported above).

I hope this clarifies my request for information.
Malcolm

Hi Falky,
I shall be most interested see your records. Please e-mail them to me.

My first specimen from the Worcester colony I referred to above turned up in a malaise trap in an orchard with no obvious daffodils. The following year I went back and searched the area for daffodils. I found a large patch of daffodils in the adjacent (+/-100m) farm garden and another in the entrance drive - both with many specimens of N. spinipes on them.
Malcolm

I found 5 today at Greywell Hants today. SU722513

interestingly there were several clumps of daffs, but they were only found on the small (species?) daffs. and seemed to avoid the large showy horticultural daffs.

Does this fit with others  observations?

Last edited by Mark (2011-03-20 03:43:21)

Malcolm,
The grid ref for the Lyth Hill record is SJ465065. Date 21 March 2011. Both copulating pairs were standing on the infloresences of daffodils on open hillside - where the daffs had gone wild.

I also noted yesterday that Pete Boardman has two Shropshire records on NBN gateway from 2006.

Best wishes
Nigel Jones

Last edited by conopid (2011-03-22 12:39:42)

Thanks everyone for your records so far. I've been away overseas for 2 weeks and was unable to respond until now. Please keep looking and hopefully finding more specimens of this interesting species.
Malcolm

Hi Malcolm,
I took a male Norellia spinipes on 22/3/2012 at Castle Ashby gardens SP868588, Northants. I swept it from a 'wild' part of the garden, in woodland. The ground flora had daffodil, martagon lilies, wood anemones, lesser celandine etc..
Regards,
John

I swept a male Norellia spinipes from a small patch of daffodils in North Cliffe Woods, south of York, at GR SE864372 on 28/03/2012. Keyed out with Stuart's key and kindly checked for me by Roy Crossley.

Ian

I found one again last Autumn at Stanford Wood among sedges (as the previous year - you saw specimen and my images Malcolm) and with no daffodils in the wood. Despite having over 50 daffodil cvs in our Clifton (Beds) garden and checking these a few times daily when I am at home I have again failed to find any here this Spring as last year.

Alan

Thank you all for this new information. I am still assembling records for N. spinipes and welcome receiving records from anybody. So far, the only ones not directly associated with daffodils seem to be Alan's but those are both autumn records rather than spring. Could it be that Alan's records relate to a different but similar (and possibly previously unrecognised) species. It would be interesting see specimens/photos of it and to learn exactly how it was behaving. I have only ever seen N. spinipes flying amongst ot sitting on daffodil leaves, stalks of flowers in early spring.
Malcolm

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
But still the Norellia spinipes
were no where to be seen!

I have however found two on reed, one at SU737263, and the other at SU958445.

Hi Malcolm

I have two records from Cheshire.  The earliest is from 14 May 1999 when I swept a single male at The Quinta, an arboretum at Swettenham (SJ796674).  I have no recollection of where I found it, but the site does have daffodils.

On 18 July 2012, I dodged out into the garden between showers and swept a few flies from the shrubs.  To my surprise these included a male and a female Norellia spinipes.  Both I and my neighbour have daffodils and narcissi in the vicinity, though these were not swept.  The location is Winsford, Cheshire (SJ64036534).

Bill Hardwick

Hi Malcolm,

I caught this fly at Tottenham Cemetery yesterday, 5th March, if you're still collecting records. I think it's the right one, and I have the specimen. It's much too big for Norrelisoma and I can't find anything else similar

http://www.ispot.org.uk/node/317942

Jeremy