Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Microphthalma, Tachinidae

Posted by Tony T on 20-09-2007 02:36
#1

19 September 2007, New Brunswick, Canada. Length: 14.5mm
Thorax colour and face seem quite different from the few other tachinids I have seen.

Edited by Tony T on 20-09-2007 15:21

Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 20-09-2007 03:13
#2

Goniinae I'd say.

Posted by crex on 20-09-2007 07:25
#3

If you want to key out the family your self - Manual of Nearctic Diptera, vol 2 (pdf). Just looking at the drawings of the faces it resembles Microphthalma at page 1223.

Edited by crex on 20-09-2007 07:27

Posted by Tony T on 20-09-2007 14:11
#4

Ouch! 347 couplets, make one mistake and one could be there for at least a day:( . But thanks for the ref.
Looking at the drawing and some images on Diptera.info
HERE it is most surely Microphthalma. Shape of face, small eyes, brown vertical streak beneath eye, and long appendix at bend of vein M all agree with the Eueopean sp. Just 4 spp, in N.A., larvae are parasitoids of white grubs (beetles). Tribe: Dexillini.
You are spot-on for the ID.