The Christii fly (Ectaetia christii) is a species of fly named after the late Iain Christie, a farmer and amateur entomologist from Dunbartonshire. It measures 2 mm (1⁄12 in) long and is black in colour.[1] Christii flies live under the bark of smaller branches or twigs of dead aspen trees.[2]
Iain Christie originally discovered the Christii fly with several others in the late 1980s, but the fly was not recognised as a new species until 1997, during a survey of the flora and fauna of the Cairngorms.[3] The research was conducted for the book The Nature Of The Cairngorms, which includes 223 species mainly found there and 1,153 further species for which the Cairngorms are nationally noted.[1] Graham Rotheray of the Museum of Scotland and Dave Horsfield of Scottish Natural Heritage found the Christii fly under the bark of a decaying aspen tree near Grantown-on-Spey.[4] Since then, it has been found in Norway and two or three more times in the Cairngorms.[1]
Rotheray described the Christii fly as "a superb example of a boreal species which has lain undiscovered in Scotland for thousands of years" and "a specialist species which adapted and probably came north with the retreat of the ice".[4] He also believed the fly to be a relict from the ice age.[5]
The Christii fly (Ectaetia christii) is a species of fly named after the late Iain Christie, a farmer and amateur entomologist from Dunbartonshire. It measures 2 mm (1⁄12 in) long and is black in colour. Christii flies live under the bark of smaller branches or twigs of dead aspen trees.
