Thread-Legged Bug, Emesaya brevipennis - Emesaya brevipennis

Moved

… Eric R. Eaton, 9 November, 2006 - 2:29pm

Moved

… Lynette Schimming, 5 October, 2006 - 2:08pm

Hi Tom,

You seem confident in your identifications but there is one thing we're unable to identify yet: You :-)

Often in considering which images to place in the guide we look to see who has identified the arthropod and on what basis. If they are formally trained in entomology, that alone can suffice. Or if we can find images elsewhere that agree with the contributor's opinion, then it doesn't matter much what we know of the contributor.

However, if a contributor is essentially anonymous and there are no confirming images to be found, we are hesitant to act on submissions.

I mention these bugguide dynamics in hopes you will reveal something about yourself, especially any qualifications/training, plus add a few notes to submissions describing the basis for making your arthropod IDs. Most of us here have no formal training in entomology, but there are some experts who visit from time to time and we always hope to attract more and learn from them. If you can point out distinguishing characteristics on your photo subjects, it will help the rest of us learn.

… Jim McClarin, 9 September, 2006 - 7:33pm

Concerning identification

I am also not convinced that this and the related images are actually Emesaya brevepennis. There are other species of this genus in North America and they look very similar. Based on the photos and the locality it could also be Emesaya brevicoxa. Additionally, this species has three subspecies that are usually readily identifiable if one took the time to key the specimen to species.

… J. D. Bradshaw, 18 January, 2007 - 9:02pm

Back to square one?

Hi Jeff,

I could find no online images of Emesaya brevicoxa either :-(

Not that it could neccesarily be used on this image, but do you know of any good online keys for Emesinae?

… Jim McClarin, 19 January, 2007 - 5:33am

Online keys for emesines

There are no online keys of emesines and it isn't surprising that you couldn't find any images of Emesaya brevicoxa. However, I do think that BugGuide probably has images of them, but they may not be identified as such. There is a print of Wygodzinsky's monograph (1) of the emesinae. It has pretty good keys for most of the emesines. However, it was published in 1966 and isn't getting any younger. Also, the monograph is pretty academic (it isn't a field guide) and may not allow you to positively identify emesines by photo alone. Cheers!

… J. D. Bradshaw, 19 January, 2007 - 9:13am