Posted by Sylvie on 16-11-2025 14:04
#1
I saw this female in July near peaty soil in moor-grass, sedge grassland in central eastern France. They were fairly numerous. The insect was large (15-20mm) relative to most Villa. I suspect a female Villa hottentata. Can someone confirm ?
Posted by Sylvie on 16-11-2025 14:38
#3
Thank you for replying so quickly. The bright yellow colour suggests a fresh specimen. What do you think ? Is there a concensus on the host for the larvae (lepidoptera or sphecidae) ?
Posted by eklans on 16-11-2025 15:12
#4
The fly has already lost some hait of the scutum, I think, so it's young, but has hatched some time ago. The hosts are Lepidoptera - I know of two reliable hosts: from Norway a Noctua pronuba (Falck, M. 2009. The Norwegian species of Villa) and from The Netherlands an Agriotis exclamationis (Smit et al 2021 ‒ duistere villa nieuw in Nederland)