I am going to have to hit the books down at the Centre to try and find out what these two are. The orange headed fly was seriously large - at least as big as the largest Bumble bee. It was quite scary. I wasn't sure whether to take its picture or run for cover. Hence the blurry image.
The wasp-like insect on the left could be a species of Sawfly (perhaps Mellinus?) whereas I am proud to say that the big chap on the right is Tachina grossa - the largest fly in Europe. No wonder I was scared.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachina_grossa
Carl
Carl - my landlord and Islay's foremost part-time wannabe Dipterist got most enthused by your Tachina Grossa. After much searching around his fly library and the internet, it turns out there is a Tachinid recording scheme (http://tachinidae.org.uk) and they have only a handful of records for Scotland, so you and Malcolm are holding some valuable data!
ReplyDeleteMark
Mark