Paul writes: I came across this beautiful fly last week, along a wide footpath through the woods near Allerston in North Yorkshire. July is a great time for finding flies feeding on umbellifers, the flowers are at just the right height for comfortable viewing and there are lots of them in the right habitat. There were plenty of insects around on my walk but I wasn’t expecting to see this one, it stood out against the more familiar species.
Phasia hemiptera is quite a different shape from lots of other insects, its head and wings are very broad so even though it’s only 10mm long it looks large. Both males and females have wide red eyes and an orange fringed thorax but only the males have the amazingly colourful wings, a combination of smoky grey and blue. The sun was shining on them which made this fly look even more dramatic.
The fly may look beautiful but its life cycle isn’t so pretty. Like most Tachinid flies the female lays her eggs on another insect. The larva then develop inside the host, eating it whilst it is still alive and eventually killing it. The fly is widespread throughout southern England & Wales but then gets more thinly distributed as you go north. I don’t see them very often so was pleased to see several, both male & female.
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fantastic, what is it preferred host/prey
Various shield bugs (hence the specific name).
Thanks Jonathon [ and there was me thinking i might get a pompous reply]
I am sorry if you found my reply pompous Steve o; that was certainly not my intention. My comment in brackets was intended only to point out the significance of the species’ name not to imply that you should have worked it out for yourself. Obviously on the internet there is great potential for causing inadvertent offence and succinctness is maybe risky sometimes. My bad.
Jonathan
Great find. I found and photographed one in Lancashire some 11 years back. Again it was on Common Hogweed, at about shoulder height. I remember thinking what is that, because it was such a striking fly. As you say, it’s not really a big fly, not in the same order of size as a Giant Tachinid Fly (Tachina grossa), but it looks very imposing. What stood out to me was the orange/red fur, and the stout, robust delta wings.
It took me a while to find out what it was, before I was contacted by someone from the Tachinid recording scheme. I think it’s still the only record from the general area.