Archytas ← ChrisR

Some interesting flies from Paraguay

Aug

2011

Today I received a small parcel of Diptera from Ulf in Paraguay – many thanks Ulf! 🙂 In the mix were lots of different families but he had sorted out mainly the calyptrates for me … with an emphasis on the tachinids, of course. Here are the first specimens from the parcel – 2 Tachinini ...

Archytas aurifrons, Townsend

Aug

2011

Last week I spent a happy afternoon at the BMNH, courtesy of Erica & Nigel in the Diptera department. I decided to concentrate on a few genera and try to identify a few neotropical specimens. My first was Archytas, a large genus with many very similar species, because I have a few quite atypical taxa ...

Archytas (French Guiana & Brazil)

Sep

2010

The following is a selection of Archytas sp. from both French Guiana and Brazil showing some of the immense diversity of this genus. Despite their huge variability Archytas spp. usually have a characteristic change in colouration between tergites 1-4 and tergite 5 – the whole abdomen is shiny but tergites 1-4 have a faint, pale ...

Archytas aurifrons, Townsend (pe-taxon #24)

Feb

2010

This is another tachinine tachinid with a slightly variable abdomenal patternation but there and many fundamental similarities between the 2 featured specimens – taking into consideration that one is male and the other is female. This taxon is very similar to fg-taxon #80. EDIT (6/8/2011): After a visit to the BMNH I believe this to ...

Archytas aurifrons (fg-taxon #80) 1

Oct

2009

This nice little tachinid looks very like a Tachininae – similar to fg-taxon #20 but with more black on the abdomen. EDIT (Monty Wood 26/9/2010): These are an Archytas sp. EDIT (6/8/2011): After a visit to the BMNH I believe these to be Archytas aurifrons, Townsend.

fg-taxon #15 (Archytas & Jurinella sp.)

Apr

2009

This is another Tachina look-alike but with a projecting mouth edge, like Linnaemya. EDIT (Monty Wood 26/9/2010): This group contains 3 spp. of Archytas and 1 spp. of Jurinella. The photo shows one of the Archytas sp.:

Tachinid Recording News

How to identify greenbottles in photos September 15, 2019
There are a few greenbottle tachinids and one of them (Chrysosomopsis aurata) is incredibly rare so I thought it might be worth showing how to identify it from the others. It is on the wing in late summer so could be easy to confuse for commoner species: Hairy eyes and strong erect bristles on […]
Tachinids that look like Eriothrix rufomaculata August 18, 2019
Eriothrix rufomaculata is an incredibly common fly in mid-summer, especially on any flowery meadows. The species is very easy to identify from the red abdominal side-patches, silvery face with projecting mouth edge, long costal spine, slightly shaded wings with a small petiole on the median vein. The only problem is that several other, rarer, […]
A quick guide to the new UK phasiines August 17, 2019
This year we have been lucky enough to receive records for 2 new species to the UK – Ectophasia crassipennis & Phasia aurigera. These both bear a resemblance to Phasia hemiptera and have been confused with them in the past so I thought I’d put together a few pointers on how to spot them. […]
How to split Tachina fera type tachinids in photos August 17, 2019
One of the most difficult problems is how to confirm/verify the identification of photos of flies that look quite like Tachina fera. I’d include in that group any of the following species: Tachina fera, Tachina magnicornis, Nowickia ferox, Linnaemya vulpina, Peleteria rubescens, Peleteria iavana & male Nemoraea pellucida. They’re all fairly large, bristly flies […]
Dexiosoma caninum vs Dexia vacua August 6, 2019
I always find that one of the hardest identifications to make from photos is the split between Dexiosoma caninum and the much rarer Dexia vacua. Dexia vacua is so rare that many experts thought that it was extinct in Western Europe so getting good, reliable records from photos is very important because it seems […]