ChrisR

Today I received a very exciting parcel of peruvian tachinids from John Smit and Menno Reemer. The samples were taken during the last half of 2009 in the Sachavacayoc Centre, Tambopata river region. This is a very species-rich part of the world with a very interesting fauna to me. I will probably take another few weeks to mount the specimens before accessioning them and trying to identify some.

It goes without saying that I am very grateful to John & Menno for their hard work!

EDIT (17/2/2010): So far I have seen lots of anonymous, black things but I have also seen:

• Beskia aelops (a fairly ubiquitous phasiine tachinid found right across the neotropics and into the southern states of North America)
• a few black Cordyligaster sp. (wasp-mimic tachinids with long bodies and very narrow waists)
• 2x Belvosia sp. (one of my favourite goniine tachinids – black with bright, white dusting on the apical tergites)
• lots of small Cholomyia sp. (a long-legged dexiine with a superficial similarity to Rhagio spp. in their body shape and coloration)
• a few even smaller Borgmeiermyia sp. (one of the small multifissicorn tachinids)
• and a very large Zelia sp. (a large, long dexiine with wide beige squares on the tergites)

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This taxon looks very similar to taxon #1 but it is subtly different. It closely resembles a box of “Zelia sp. indet.” in the NHM, London:

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This taxon is a dexine tachinid with unusual markings on T3 and an elongate abdomen. It also has plumose antennae.

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