P7164725-En -e1
Blue-winged Tachinid - Phasia hemiptera - female.
A parasitoid of Shield Bugs.
Only the female has the orange hair on the side of the thorax and abdomen under the wing roots. Abt 12mm long. Said to be common but not recorded into my recent Wildguides ‘British Insects’, in this region. Missing from Michael Chinery’s, ‘Complete British Insects’.
The wings are notably different from most flies being quite deltoid in shape. Both genders show blue grey opaque patterning on the winds, the male more so than the female.
Its preferred habitat is grassland and hedgerows and it is seen on top of umbellifiers .
This individual was disturbed by the soldier beetles on a number of occasions but always returned to the same position on the same flower head.
As with so many species in the last week, it is a first sighting for me - ever.
P7164725-En -e1
Blue-winged Tachinid - Phasia hemiptera - female.
A parasitoid of Shield Bugs.
Only the female has the orange hair on the side of the thorax and abdomen under the wing roots. Abt 12mm long. Said to be common but not recorded into my recent Wildguides ‘British Insects’, in this region. Missing from Michael Chinery’s, ‘Complete British Insects’.
The wings are notably different from most flies being quite deltoid in shape. Both genders show blue grey opaque patterning on the winds, the male more so than the female.
Its preferred habitat is grassland and hedgerows and it is seen on top of umbellifiers .
This individual was disturbed by the soldier beetles on a number of occasions but always returned to the same position on the same flower head.
As with so many species in the last week, it is a first sighting for me - ever.