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Old 06-10-2009, 03:27 PM
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ChrisR ChrisR is offline
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Location: Berks/South Oxon
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Re: Last post for a bit

Hope you get well soon!

The fly is a Siphona (a tachinid fly) - from the long, hinged proboscis, and general colour and shape. They are fairly common at this time of year. Species-wise it is a lot trickier because Siphona is probably the most difficult tachinid genus to identify - even with a specimen - but the commonest species by far is S.geniculata (a parasitoid of crane-fly larvae) and this one fits the bill with it's strong margin bristles on tergite* 1+2

* tergites are the dorsal plates that make up the abdomen and the nearest to the thorax is called 1+2
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