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Photo#1585659
Tachinidae, dorsal - Zelia metalis - female

Tachinidae, dorsal - Zelia metalis - Female
Dinesen Prairie, Shelby County, Iowa, USA
August 28, 2018
August 5, 2018: collected 2 stems of Sawtooth Sunflower, Helianthus grosseserratus, each with evidence of stem borings similar to this:

The above stem housed a large weevil, Rhodobaenus tredecimpunctatus. If I were to guess, the other 2 stems might also have housed weevil larvae. (But one should not guess.)
August 28, 2018: tachinid fly emerged
August 30, 2018: cut open the 2 stems, 1 had evidence of boring and 2 small holes (emergent?) but no debris stuffed inside. The other stem had debris stuffed at both ends of a chamber that housed the spent fly puparium. (The debris at both ends of a chamber is what was in the stem of the weevil.)

Images of this individual: tag all
Tachinidae, dorsal - Zelia metalis - female Tachinidae, lateral - Zelia metalis - female Tachinidae, frontal - Zelia metalis - female Tachinidae, ventral - Zelia metalis - female

Moved
Moved from Parasitic Flies.

Zelia metalis?
Might be the female for this guy:

If so it would be a beetle parasite. Got any beetles in your sunflowers large enough to hold this fly?

Edit: I see now the stem photo is on a beetle page.

 
Thank you.
I edited the post and hope it now makes more sense.

Assuming this stem also housed the same species weevil larva, the larva would have been big enough to house this fly.

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