ChrisR

This is possibly the most beautiful tachinid I have ever seen. The photos say it all!

In this taxon the irredescent green colour comes from layers of dusting, rather than the usual duller, green-coloured pigments found in European genera, such as Gymnocheta and Lucilia. It is worth noting that days after this photo was taken and the specimen had dried the green coloration had completely faded to brown. I haven’t experimented with putting it back into alcohol to see if the colour returns.

EDIT (1/3/2010): After reading Woodley & Arnaud (2008) it seems that this might be a species of Chrysoexorista – eyes hairy, mouth not projecting, dark femora etc. (obviously NOT Eulobomyia)

* Woodley, N.E. & Arnaud, P.H. (2008) Lobomyia neotropica, a new genus and species of Tachinidae (Diptera) from the Neotropical Region. Zootaxa 1783: 31–39 (2008)

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This taxon group contains specimens that have a strong resemblance to members of the Sturmiini. All specimens have recumbent hairs and bristles with a tuft of stronger bristles on the most posterior tergites and the males all have a large, dense ‘Sturmia spot’ on the underside of the tergites.

This is a female:

This is a male:

and here is the male’s “Sturmia-spot”, the dense tufts of hair on the underside of tergites 4 & 5:

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