What’s this?
Mystery insect – photographed in southern Arizona.
Tonight’s mystery is points-free. Our upcoming Belize workshop (yay!) means the mystery will be on hiatus for part of the month, so I’m not bothering with a points tally until February.
So. Pat yourself on the back if you guess the order. Open yourself a bottle of your favorite beverage if you pick the family. And treat yourself to a week’s vacation somewhere warm if you can identify the genus or species.
***update (1/8/13) And Ben Coulter gets it: this is Trixodes obesus, an enormous tachinid fly.
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Order: Diptera
Family: Tabanidae?
Muscidae: Musca domestica
Calliphoridae ?
Order: Diptera
Superfamily: Oestroidea
Diptera, Brachycera, Calyptrata. I’ll post a family identification if I have time to key it out.
Order Diptera; family Tachinidae? If so, a less bristly tail than usual.
Trixodes obesus
looks like a good call to me….but only it’s hairdresser knows for sure
zoomify it !!!
http://www.nadsdiptera.org/Tach/Tachgallery/Dexiinae/Dexiini/Trixodes_obesus.html