About the Common Tachinid
Tachina fera is a species of fly in the genus Tachina of the family Tachinidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761. This species can be found in the entire Palearctic realm, across Europe as far north as Scandinavia and European Russia. It is also present in Israel and North Asia, east to China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan, and in North Africa.
These flies inhabit the vegetation of humid regions, meadows, woodland, forests, forest edges, clearings, heath and moorland and natural gardens. Tachina fera can reach a length of 9–14 millimetres (0.35–0.55 in), with a wingspan of 16–27 mm. These tachinids show a grayish upperside of the thorax, due to dense pollinosity, with regular black stripes. The abdomen is yellow orange with a wide black dorsal stripe ending in a point. They are bristly on the thorax and abdomen, especially towards the tip, where they have long thorn-shaped, protruding black bristles. Close to the thorax there is a striking, orange-red and shiny 'bump' called postscutellum, with a thin black edge. The head is yellowish colored, with long antennae, whose second segment is yellow, while the third, much shorter... Wikipedia →