Giant fly is a horror story
OVER the past couple of weeks, I have been wallowing in the glory of spotting a very rare beastie while I was out and about on our reserves.
I was wandering around Upper Coldwell Reservoir near to Burnley, when I spotted what I thought was a huge bee on a plant.
The rear end was all black and fluffy and the only thing confusing me was its wings, looking notvery-bee like. Then it turned around.
It was a bit of shock to say the least, bees are not the cuddliest little things in the world but I was faced with a yellow face and two huge eyes. I didn’t have a clue what this was but it was big, about three-quarters of an inch long.
A quick email out to my colleagues and bee expert Ben Hargreaves came back immediately with Tachina grossa or giant tachinid fly – a parasitoid of butterfly and moth larva.
Just to make things even more horrific, parasitoid means the female giant tachinid fly lays its eggs on other living insect larva. Its larvae develop inside the living ‘host,’ eating it and killing it. One of its victims is the oak eggar moth caterpillars, which I featured last year as zombie caterpillars on the Lancashire mosses.
While I spotted the tachinid fly on plants on moorland, it can be spotted on peat bogs, in forests and, if you really unlucky, gardens.
You can easily mistake them in flight for a bumblebee as they look quite fluffy from a distance, but they are spikier than a bee when you get close up.
I did a bit of research into how common these flies are, and sightings in and around our region look quite rare. In fact, there seem to be only 20 or so over the past 30 years.
An expert over in east Lancashire told one of our officers that he had only seen one in all his fly-hunting expeditions and that was in August 2011.
As part of my job, I am out and about quite a lot so I do get the chance to see a lot of wildlife, so it is only a matter of time before I see something a little bit rare, but this seems pretty special.
Over the years I have been in the middle of hundreds of cormorants roosting in a dozen trees, walked under starling murmurations, come face-to-face with a nosey weasel, watched brown hares boxing on a meadow, seen a peregrine falcon having a row with a gull and seen a red deer stag on the West Pennine Moors.
And there have been other encounters with more common wildlife, from foxes and deer to worms and ladybirds.
If you want to have similar experiences you have to get out into wild places to find them. You can see wild things on your bird table and in your garden but you increase the chances of seeing something amazing the more you are outside.
Our local birders and bat experts will back up that view – in fact, joining a local wildlife group will help you to find some of the best places to see our natural wonders.
Of course, if you don’t fancy meeting a Tachina grossa face-toface, it might be better to stay indoors.
The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. It manages around 40 nature reserves and 20 Local Nature Reserves covering acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow. The Trust has 29,000 members, and over 1,200 volunteers.
To become a member of the Trust go to the website at www.lancswt. org.uk or call 01772 324129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk.