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LinkedInPosts Tagged: tachinid fly
It's Friday Fly Day!
If it's Friday, it must be "Friday Fly Day!" And a perfect day to post an image of a fly. This is a female tachinid, genus Peleteria, in the family Tachinidae. It is perched on a lavender in Vacaville, Calif. The genus is characterized by two prominent setae in front of...
A female tachinid on lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Parasitoid Palooza! Or What Ate My Caterpillar or Chrysalis
So you're trying to rear monarch butterflies. You notice an egg on your milkweed plant, and watch its life cycle from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis. Aha, you think, soon I'll be able to see an adult monarch eclose from that chrysalis. Not so fast. If a tachinid fly lays eggs in that...
This monarch chrysalis is filled with tachinid fly larvae, about to emerge. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tachinid fly larva emerges from a monarch chrysalis. It will turn brown, harden, and become a pupa--and eventually, an adult tachinid fly. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Taking on the Tachinids
They're hairy. They're bristly. They're attention-getters. They probably draw more "yecchs!" than most insects. All the more reason to love 'em. Frankly, the tachinids (family Tachinidae, order Diptera) could never be misidentified as honey bees, as some pollinators such as hover flies, are. And...
Tachinid fly "in the pink." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tachinid fly foraging. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The End Is Near
The parasitic fly (family Tachinidae) never had a chance. It went from floral visitor to spider prey to spider dinner when it made a single solitary mistake: it inadvertently fell into a sticky web. Its life-and-death struggle in our back yard did not escape a trio of cellar spiders (family...
Two cellar spiders work together to capture a Tachinid fly in their web. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
While one spider wraps the fly, another bites it in the head, paralyzing it. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of the fatal bite. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Tiptoeing Through the Lavender
Ever seen a tachinid tiptoeing through the lavender? The tachinids are parasitic flies that lay their eggs in hosts such as Lepidoptera (butterfly) caterpillars. As larvae, they live in and kill their hosts. As adults, they sip nectar and other plant juices. That's why you'll see the adults...
Tachinid Fly
Going Down
Going Around
