File talk:Cantharis fusca 02.jpg

• @Pudding4brains: I'm not a specialist... I've fulfilled your request and I've renamed this file -- but I'm hesitating now... Are you absolutely sure the rename is well done? Can you describe the differences with those two species? Wieralee (talk) 17:18, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Howdy,

Many, many Cantharidae on Commons carry wrong names and many photos cannot be ID'd reliably to species. Obviously, naming images of Cantharidae for usage on wikipedia projects should be done with more care and many images should be placed in a "uncertain" category or in some dual-species category or some such.

This is especially true for the original ID on this image (Cantharis obscura): Even if this would have been a lookalike (which it isn't) the ID would have been near impossible as obscura, paradoxa & liburnica are almost impossible to ID from photo.

In this case however it is easy, as it is fusca :o) The pattern on the pronotum of fusca is very variable. The black spot is always situated at the front of the pronotum, but it can easily extend all the way to the back (as it does here). In this case the specimen is indeed often confused with obscura/paradoxa, but the total habitus is quite different, the sides of the pronotum are less sharply defined and more reddish-orange (white/yellowish-orange on the others), but most easily separated by the first antennal segments that are red on fusca and black above on the others. Cheers Pudding4brains (talk) 17:42, 1 May 2015 (UTC)