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Sticker of Common tachinid
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Common tachinid

Tachina fera
Eats: Nectar and pollenFlies and mosquitoesGardens and meadows6 legs

The common tachinid is a bristly fly with an orange yellow body and a wide black stripe down its back. It has big red eyes and a spiky bottom. You often see it sitting on flowers in meadows.

Lives in
Europe, North Africa and Asia as far as Japan, in meadows, woods and gardens
Length
0.9 to 1.4 cm (0.35 to 0.55 in)
Wingspan
1.6 to 2.7 cm (0.63 to 1.1 in)
Top speed
about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It looks spiky, but it does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-up fly drinks nectar and eats pollen. Its larva grows up inside a caterpillar and eats it from the inside.
For real!Photo of Common tachinid
Picture by Pjt56 --- If you use the picture outside Wikipedia I would appreciate a short e-mail to [email protected] or a message on my discussion page. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Common tachinid about 1.4 cm long (0.55 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)

How wide are its wings?

Common tachinid wings about 2.7 cm tip to tip (1.1 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a rowwings as wide as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 34 secondsmoves 220 times its own body length every second

How big is Common tachinid compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The mother lays her eggs on leaves that caterpillars like to eat.

2

When a baby hatches, it crawls into a caterpillar. Only one baby lives in each caterpillar.

3

It helps foresters, because it gets rid of caterpillars that harm trees.

4

It especially likes thistle and hogweed flowers.

you asked

Most asked questions about Common tachinid

?Is the common tachinid fly dangerous?

No. It looks bristly, but it is harmless to people.

?Why is the tachinid fly useful?

Its babies eat caterpillars of moths that can harm trees.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Tachina fera
Named by
Linnaeus, 1761
Group
Flies and mosquitoes
Family
Tachinidae
Classification
Insecta > Diptera > Tachinidae
Lives on
Europe, Africa, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Tachina fera (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Pjt56 --- If you use the picture outside Wikipedia I would appreciate a short e-mail to [email protected] or a message on my discussion page. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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