Another new species

A marsh snipefly (Rhagio tringarius), a new species for our lists, spotted in the reserve on Wednesday by Ian Bushell.

Wikipedia says this is a commonplace species that likes wet meadows, hedges, woods and areas with a rich vegetation, all of which make the reserve ideal marsh snipefly habitat

Other than that, there seems to be very little about Rhagio tringarius out there in the usually informative backwaters of the internet where people talk about arcane things like snipefly. Britannica calls both the adult fly and its larva predacious, which we think is a lovely word; NatureSpot tells us that the adult fly likes to sit on leaves, and on flickr, Steven Falk has posted many photographs of marsh snipeflies doing exactly that: sitting on leaves.

Several authorities have copied and pasted this: the larvae of this snipefly dwell in the ground, on litter and detritus. It’s hard to tell who used the phrase first but when a single detail (clearly marked with the word dwell) goes round and round like that, it means that there are more people than just us looking for sound information about marsh snipeflies.

Research subject, anybody?

Header image: marsh snipe fly taken in the reserve by Ian Bushell