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Here is my second Project Kerkini Tachinid, easy I am sure.

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Facing in the fly of reality

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The same Tachina sp, the Sciarid is visible in the background.

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Tachina fera male,


Theo

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Dear Theo,
Thanks for the ID, I thought it might be distinctive, but I wasn't sure if there were similar species.

Gordon

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There are lots of similar species - especially in the south of Europe :)

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Gee Chris you are being a real positive boost today, yeah, I know the truth is best, but how similar, can this be determined from the photos reliably or not? It is nice to be able to put a name on a photo.

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Well, I have only seen Tachina fera in any numbers, here in the UK. I once keyed a few T.magnicornis out of some Russian material but every time I see photos here and Theo gives a name I am quite lost for an opinion. He has mentioned that they are a difficult group ... I think the key features are frons width and the colour of the tarsi but I think Theo's experience of these things really makes the difference - he has seen many more than I have :)

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Thanks Chris,
I should think the frons width and tarsi colour are visible in these pictures. However I have been comparing the pictures of T. magicornis with T. fera in the gallery, and it seems that the dark stripe on the back is wider at the front of each segment than it is at the back in T. fera, and wider or as wide at the back as at the front in T. magicornis, this would make my species T. fera. Of course this may just be a co-incidence of a very small sample size but it is the best I can see from the photos, so I will go with Theo's determination until I hear better.

Gordon

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There's a third species closely related to T. magnicornis present in northern Europe. Christer Bergstr?m is working on the problem. It has apparently been described already in the 19th century and later erroneously synonymised with some other Tachina.

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Tachina's are very nice, however, quite complicated to ID.
About 10 % of the specimens, especially females, are T. spec. to me even when pinned.
However, this is a male with reddish tarsi and a narrow vertex, so I'm quite confident this is fera without too much doubt.


Theo

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Good, that's settled then.

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Well it was settled until I checked the records today, T. fera is not on the list, but the following are. I have put T. fera on the image on the poster but it would be nice to be sure it was not any these before I add T. fera to the NP species list.

Tachina magna
Tachina magnicornis
Tachina praeceps

Sorry to be a nuisence.

Gordon

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I'm very cautious with Tachina, but this is the male of T. fera 100 % sure.


Theo

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Dear Theo,
Thanks, Guido has also assured me that with all red legs it is none of the others and he was the one who determined the other specimens. I am always a little wary adding a name to the NP list purely on the basis of a photo, but now I will add this, taking my Tachinid list to 99, but Guido has several thousand more speciemns to work through, so I think it will top 100.

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I recently saw my first T. magna in the Moscow museum and it is huge and black ... like a T. grossa lookalike :)