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hi flyforum,

This afternoon I got two tachinidae, on the edge of the forest near water.
What kind of tachinidae are these?

I've more detailed pictures if needed for identification..

place: Amsterdam forest
date: 13-10-2009

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Would be nice to see those other photos - especially a lateral shot :) Looks a little like a Carcelia sp.

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Looks like a Pales to me.
Lateral shot would help


Theo

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hi Chris and Theo,

Hereby, some more angles.

There is some color in the femur (pink/redish), there are also some redish parts on the side of the thorax. And looking closely there is some of these redish/pink on the frons.

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headparts

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This is another Tachinidae(female?), bigger in size but I think the same species.
The Tachinidae on picture 1,2 and 3 could be male? (size much smaller)
These Tachi's were sitting next to each other..

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Theo is correct - the facial bristles are much more like Pales :)

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thanks Chris,

In the Netherlands there are two kind of Pales sp.;
1) Pales pavida (Meigen, 1824) [species]
2) Pales processioneae (Ratzeburg, 1840) [species]

Let's see what Theo's opinion is.

greeting Robert,

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It's most likely to be Pales pavida but I recently tried keying a few spanish Pales and the key gets quite complicated (with some nasty measurements of face/frons & antenna length) but the male genitalia are nice and easy - not that it helps you here but perhaps Theo just knows them by sight (I have never seen processioneae) :)

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Well, I know them by sight is too much of a complement, both species are very similar.
This is pavida, based on the proportions of the head.
Pavida is very common, processioneae restricted to Thaumetopoea and hardly ever seen in the wild.

Chris, next time I'll send you some, I have plenty.

Theo

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Thanks - that would be great :D Luckily the Spanish samples were males so I could check genitalia ... and they were very thin so they were P.pavida ... a few more to add to the collection ;)

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Thank you Theo and Chris again,