Cluster Fly...

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:23 am

maybe, not sure. I searched bugguide but not through the 500 and some odd digital pages of flies. I found something similar on or around page 6 which suggested Pollenia, however when I searched the same on the web, I got a much different fly than this.

The fly is quite large as you can see, compared to the fall aster that it is on and was or seemed to be, gathering nectar with a few honeybees from the hives nearby.

Canon EOS 20D
Manual mode/hand held
1/125 sec. @ f/7.1 ISO 100
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM
Canon 430EX Speedlite w/Novoflex bracket @ -1/3 (diffused)
Afternoon, sun

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:53 am

Whatever the species Ken they are two terrific photos. Great head detail in pic2.

With a rear-end like that bet he gets some ribbing from his mates

Bruc

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:07 am

With a rear-end like that bet he gets some ribbing from his mates

Probably so Bruce but then again judging from its size, its mates may want to be a bit less discerning in their comments about its posterior

Thanks Bruce

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 3:46 pm

There you go Bruce, would be excellent to see a stack of the hair arrangement of a flys rear-end

. beautiful photos Ken. My camera is still out at Canon, has been 9 days already

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 5:25 pm

Thanks Doug

Nine days!

You must be going through withdrawals.

Walter Piorkowski · Post by **Walter Piorkowski** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:00 pm

Very sharp shots Ken and interesting subject. Walt

jaharris1001 · Post by **jaharris1001** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 2:56 pm

very nice Ken,,, I'd say he's a candidate for Laser Hair Removal

Especially on his behind,,,, what would the ladies think

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:25 pm

Thanks Walt and Jim. As for what the ladies would think? I dunno

I could maybe expound on this topic a bit more but this is a family oriented net. So..

JoanYoung · Post by **JoanYoung** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:31 pm

The ladies think "what a disgusting hairy butt" LOL!! Great pics Ken!

Tony T · Post by **Tony T** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 8:46 am

Ken:
This is not a Cluster Fly but a Tachinid Fly. This is 1 of 2 similar genera: 1-Archytas or 2-Tachina. Best told apart by the shape of the last antennal segment, best seen in a lateral view. In 1 it is slighty elongate and droops downward with a rounded tip. in 2 it is shorter, does not droop and is "chopped off" at the tip giving a squarish look.
Difficult to see in your fly, but I'm going with Tachina sp.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 9:30 am

Thanks Tony

I am not all that familiar with insects and my conclusions were drawn using bugguide.net. However as I mentioned, when I began researching the fly further, nothing seemed to match up with what other sites were suggesting or saying. Maybe I was not looking in the right places. A good argument here for books by knowledgable people concerning insect diversity. More and more it seems that I am finding the internet to be a vast wasteland of not so reliable sources for specific data of most all types.