- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
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 the lower part of the eye.
I've seen tachinids lay eggs in monarch caterpillars and in monarch chrysalids. The fly larvae eat the host from the inside out. The hostess with the mostest?
However, tachinids are considered important biological controls because they lay their eggs in such pests as cabbage white butterfly larvae (Pieris rapae).
See the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management website for more on tachinids.
Interesting critters, don't you think?
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
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 Pholcidae). They rapidly descended on the squirming fly.
This was the first time I've ever seen cellar spiders hunt together. While one wrapped it in silk for future dining pleasure, another administered a fatal bite. The powerful poison paralyzed it. Then one of the bigger spiders tugged the wrapped prey under the lip of our barbecue table. Out of sight.
Bon appetit! Table for three!
It's not easy identifying "what's for dinner" but Martin Hauser, a senior insect biosystematist with the Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch, California Department of Food and Agriculture, said it's definitely a Tachinid fly. There are hundreds of Tachinidae genera, he says, but this one is very likely a Peleteria.
I'm just glad the catch of the day wasn't a honey bee.