Fly
Location: Tenerife, Costa Adeje
November 26, 2011 11:52 am
Photographed this fly earlier this year but cant identify it at all.
Shot taken in San Eugenio Alto close to a Banana Plantation.
Signature: Dave Wilson
Tachinid Fly, we believe
Hi Dave,
We needed to do a web search to determine that your location is in the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa. We are relatively certain your fly is a Tachinid Fly, a member of a large family with members that parasitize insects and other arthropods. Different species of Tachinid Flies are often very host specific, concentrating on a single species or genus as their host. The female Tachinid Fly lays eggs on or inside the host and the larval flies develop as internal parasites, eventually killing the host. Tachinid Flies are important biological control agents.
¶ Posted 27 November 2011 § ‡ ° Tachinid Fly?
October 9, 2011
in paso robles yesterday, this very bristly, large beastie flew away from its mates on the coyote bush into the house. he was fearsome-looking, but didn’t mind being caught in a jar and released 
this guy had definite orange spots. i looked him up in the book i have in paso robles, but forget its name – the fly and the book…
clare.
Spiny Tachinid Fly
Ed. Note: This came to Daniel’s personal email address from a close friend. Here is some of the email chatter.
Julian Donahue provides some input
Tachinid, all right. Perhaps one of the ones that parasitizes the wild silk moths, like Hyalophora euryalus (that’s the name of the moth, not the fly). There are also some big ones that parasitize earthworms.
jpd
he looked big enough to parasitise anything his little heart desires!
i have only ever seen them in the fall… could that be?
http://bugguide.net/node/view/449075/bgimage
ooh – yes, that’s him (her?).
Tachinid Fly – Paradejeania rutilioides
they were all over the baccharis.
it’s a lovely camera. but, the beast was inside the house and i was outside the window shooting thru not exactly recently-cleaned glass. further, the beast was high on the rolled up blind – and i was on my tiptoes – wobbling
BugGuide reports them in California from August through December. BugGuide also notes: “Adults take nectar, especially from late blooming Asteraceae. Larval host: the arctiid moth Hemihyalea edwardsii, at least in part of its range (Hsu & Powell 1992).” Surprised Julian didn’t know that Arctiid host tidbit.
1
¶ Posted 11 October 2011 § ‡ ° Biological Controller
Location: Queensland, Australia
September 30, 2011 11:23 pm
Hi guys,
Thought you might like these shots of Trichopoda giacomellii, introduced into Australia from South Africa as a biological control agent for Green Stink (Potato) Bugs. Sure are pretty for assassins.
Signature: aussietrev
Introduced Tachinid Fly
Hi Trevor,
Thanks so much for thinking of us when you have another gorgeous image of some Australian bug that is underrepresented on our site. Armed with the information you provided, we tried to find additional information on this Tachinid Fly, and we learned that it is originally from Argentina, not South Africa. You can verify that both on this PDF courtesy of the CSIRO Division of Entomology and the CSIRO website. According to the Queensland Government Primary Industries and Fisherieswebsite, this Tachinid is commonly called the Green Vegetable Bug Parasitic Fly.
Green Vegetable Bug Parasitic Fly
1
¶ Posted 02 October 2011 § ‡ ° Hairy Fly
Location: Asheville, NC
September 8, 2011 8:22 pm
I saw this hairy fly in Asheville, NC last August. The fly has an orange abdomen with black stripes and large stiff-looking black hairs. It is about an inch long. I would love to know what it is!
Thank you for your help.
Signature: Kelly
Tachinid Fly
Hi Kelly,
This fly is a member of the family Tachinidae, and they are commonly called Tachinid Flies, a name that is basically just a reference to the family. We haven’t the necessary skills to identify the species. Here is what BugGuide has to say about this large family of parasitoids: “Larval stages are parasitoids of other arthropods; hosts include members of 11 insect orders, centipedes, spiders, and scorpions. Some tachinids are very host-specific, others parasitize a wide variety of hosts. The most common hosts are caterpillars. Most tachinids deposit their eggs directly on the body of their host, and it is not uncommon to see caterpillars with several tachinid eggs on them. Upon hatching the larva usually burrows into its host and feeds internally. Full-grown larva leaves the host and pupates nearby. Some tachinids lay their eggs on foliage; the larvae are flattened and are called planidia; they remain on the foliage until they find a suitable host.”
1
¶ Posted 09 September 2011 § ‡ ° Snowball Viburnum Denizens
Location: Trumbull, CT
August 29, 2011 6:58 pm
I tried to look up both of these insects, but I only found one. The first is an ailanthus webworm moth, but I don’t know what the second one is. I occasionally find interesting insects on the snowball viburnum bush in my front yard.
Signature: Chuck
Ailanthus Webworm Moth
Dear Chuck,
Congratulations on having successfully identified your Ailanthus Webworm Moth. Folks of a certain age and those who think flower power was the apex of 20th Century style will likely respond to the repetitious patterns and play on scale evident in this lush photograph. Your other insect is a Feather Legged Fly, Trichopoda pennipes, a member of the Tachinid Fly family Tachinidae. Tachinid Flies have larvae that are internal parasites of other insects, arachnids and certain members of other arthropod orders. In the case of the Feather Legged Fly, the host insect is a Stink Bug. Here is the BugGuide page on this species.
Flower Fly on Snowball Viburnum
Upstate New York
Location: New York
July 7, 2011 1:52 pm
I saw this bug in Upstate New York – I feel clueless as I bet it’s a very common insect I just don’t know.
Signature: Needing help from the Bugman
Tachinid Fly
Dear Needing help …,
This is a Tachinid Fly, a member of the family Tachinidae. Tachinid Flies are parasites on other insects and they are considered highly beneficial. We believe with some certainty that your fly is Belvosia borealis which we identified on BugGuide, however, the most distinguishing feature, the yellow markings on the abdomen, are not visible in your photograph because of the angle of view.
¶ Posted 07 July 2011 § ‡ ° Ed. Note:
May 29, 2011
Though this letter was submitted nearly a year ago, we discussed with Frederique Lavoipierre the possibility of making the Tachinid Fly the featured Bug of the Month for June 2011.
What is this bug?
Location: Cloudcroft Observatory, New Mexico.
September 10, 2010 4:11 pm
Hello. I was curious about a bug I saw in the mountains at Cloudcroft, New Mexico. This bug was found at the Cloudcroft Observatory. It seemed a lot like a bee because it buzzed, but it looked totally different than one.
This bug was seen in August, 2010.
Thank you!
-Carly
Tachinid Fly
Hi Carly,
The color palette of your photograph is so beautiful. This is a Tachinid Fly, probably Adejeania vexatrix based on images posted to BugGuide. Adult Tachinid Flies take nectar from flowers, but immature larvae are endoparasites on a variety of insects and arthropods, often limiting themselves to a single species.
Tachinid Fly
Bug of the Month
May 29, 2011
We are taking this opportunity to make our readership aware of the beneficial flies in the family Tachinidae by linking to the BugGuide information page on the family. We are also providing a link to the Pacific Horticulture website and the online article on Tachinid Flies submitted by Frédérique Lavoipierre, Garden Ecologist. Here is an excerpt from that article: “Tachinids are the most diverse family of Diptera (true flies), and help control many pests; of the parasitic insects, only parasitoid wasps are of greater importance. All of the known species of tachinids are parasitoids: they deposit their eggs on or near host arthropods, and the larvae parasitize the host, in most cases resulting in the victim’s death. Parasitoids (as opposed to parasites) are free-living as adults; many of the common garden tachinids are flower visitors, feeding on nectar and pollen as adults. Tachinids parasitize a broad range of hosts from several orders of insects, among them Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Coleoptera (beetles, especially scarabs and leaf beetles), and Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets). In the Hymenoptera (wasps, bees, and ants), they specialize on sawflies, a common herbivorous pest. They are also known to attack a few other arthropods besides insects, particularly centipedes.”
Update: June 29, 2011
Hi Daniel,
Took me a bit longer than I thought to wrap up my thesis, and someone in the department just pointed out the tachinid ‘bug of the month’ to me yesterday. At any rate, it was very cool to see tachinids in a starring role!
F
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