Tachinid Fly Attacks Painted Lady Butterfly

The music grows in intensity and the tension builds as the parasitic tachinid fly moves in on the unsuspecting butterfly. (Chris R., joint coordinator of the UK Tachinid Recording scheme - http://tachinidae.org.uk/, emailed to say that it may not be a tachinid fly and that they are unlikely to attack an adult butterfly because of the thickness of chitin that they would need to penetrate.)Music from MGI video editor. Video recorded in Harborough, August 2004. Just before this I had recorded a clip of the same butterfly. There is a video of that later in this collection. Please refer to that also. Some tachinids and related species parasitise worms and it might be that they could help to control the New Zealand triangular worm that is killing off earthworms in the UK and causing drainage problems in some places because of how earthworms help to maintain soil porosity.