I posted a deer fly with a guess for the species and received a correction with a fantastic key from ken_j_allison. See: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/122034737#activity_identification_0dc6b29f-a2f6-4d22-8246-df7cd9aea782.

Another fly ID (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/89857551#activity_identification_14755726-009d-4b4f-8452-b79bde597f96) from fly-expert, Even Dankowicz, led me to his bookmark of his IDs, and I can filter this down to Michigan-only if I want in shopping for help with cool flies that I decide to post (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?ident_user_id=edanko&not_user_id=edanko&place_id=29&view=species). I get a lot of Dipterans at my moth lights, and many I haven't bothered to post, as I really want to focus on moths here. I have to remind myself that other people might be very interested in them! Even better is the incredible Fly Guide linked at Even Dankowicz's profile page especially designed for field and photo ID:
https://sites.google.com/view/flyguide.

I wish at each taxon level the "About" tab could include references, including links to openly available sites, or even links that might involve a pay-wall with a heads-up note of how people might access them through a library. I'm afraid that would be a daunting addition, and it would have to include notation about whether the guide is peer-referenced in some way, or at least some measure of credentials for the author...

Posted on June 17, 2022 07:47 PM by susan_kielb