ChrisR

This is my current favourite from Villu’s recent sample of tachinids from French Guiana – it looks very closely related to one I found in my last batch – see here.

This identification was made by comparing the specimen to material in the NHM in London – many thanks to Erica McAlister & Kim Goodyear for giving me access to the collections.

EDIT (21/2/2010): The genus Cordyligaster hasn’t been revised since Guimaraes wrote a key to the neotropical species and published a new species (C.townsendi) in 1971* and there appears to be a bit of synonomy in the genus. The NHM collection contains seperate sections for C.fuscipennis and C.petiolata but, as far as I can see, fuscipennis is just a synonym of petiolata now and the 2 “species” look remarkably similar in the collection.

I now have specimens from Peru that also conform to Guimaraes’ idea of C.petiolata.

* Guimaraes, J. H. 1971. Notes on the genus Cordyligaster Macquart, with the description of a new species from Brazil (Diptera, Tachinidae). Pap. avuls. Zool. 25: 99-103.

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This spectacular fly looks very similar in style to European Mintho spp., but it is in fact a dexiine from the tribe Sophiini. The body length is 13mm, which makes is quite a large species, the calyptrae are very small and the palps are covered with small bristlets. It seems fairly obvious that it is attempting to mimic flying ants, with the narrow waist and shaded wing costa.

This identification was made by comparing the specimen to material in the NHM in London – many thanks to Erica McAlister & Kim Goodyear for giving me access to the collections.

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