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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Arachnids (Arachnida) » Spiders (Araneae) » True Spiders (Araneomorphae) » Entelegynes » Jumping Spiders (Salticidae) » Dendryphantinae » Sassacus » Sassacus vitis
Photo#236133
Eating a Tachinid Fly in California (October) - Sassacus vitis
Copyright © 2008 Harsi S. Parker

Eating a Tachinid Fly in California (October) - Sassacus vitis
Webb Canyon, ~2000 ft. altitude, Los Angeles County, California, USA
October 2, 2008
Size: ~4 mm
I only recently learned the identity of this species, so I'm just looking for a little extra confirmation that Sassacus vitis is indeed correct for the specimen in this image.

Also, would love to hear any guesses or hints as to what type of Diptera it is eating. (The dorsal side of the abdomen was a lovely pale blue color if that is of any help at all.)

Photographed on Oleander.

Images of this individual: tag all
Eating a Tachinid Fly in California (October) - Sassacus vitis Eating a Tachinid Fly in California (October) - Sassacus vitis
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Contributed by Harsi S. Parker on 25 October, 2008 - 10:09pm
Last updated 27 October, 2009 - 8:08pm

Not an ID but
in an effort to look foolish I ask... are those the wing veins of a Pipunculidae (Big-headed flies)?
… John R. Maxwell, 26 October, 2008 - 11:59am login or register to post comments

 
Phasiinae
Prey is probably a species of Phasia. Family Tachinidae.
… Matthias Buck, 26 October, 2008 - 3:22pm login or register to post comments

 
I looked at the Phasia...
...and couldn't find anything that looked quite right, but then there weren't very many examples to look through either. Decided to look through the rest of the species in Phasiinae and based solely on appearance, I actually thought that this member of the Gymnoclytia genus looked the closest:



Of course, my specimen had a solid blue abdomen, and was not patterned like this, so it's basically just the color that looks right to me.

I thought maybe I might have more images of this species, so I went back through all of this year's photos, and sure enough, I found several more shots of the same type of fly! The bad news is that they were all shots of the back of the abdomen, just like the one I already submitted... not a single head shot in the bunch. Darn! Anyway, thanks again to you and John for trying to help me come up with a match.
… Harsi S. Parker, 26 October, 2008 - 10:04pm login or register to post comments

 
Thanks for the info...
...I will go take a look at that group now!

Meanwhile, I've uploaded a few more images of the fly...
… Harsi S. Parker, 26 October, 2008 - 4:44pm login or register to post comments

 
I frassed the extra fly images...
...as they did not prompt any further speculation as to an ID.
… Harsi S. Parker, 5 November, 2008 - 1:53pm login or register to post comments

 
See
The best sure-fire way to get an ID is for someone else to make a bad one ;-)
Hey, I got to learn too.
… John R. Maxwell, 26 October, 2008 - 6:20pm login or register to post comments

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