Tachinidae is a large and diverse family of flies (Diptera) consisting of about 10,000 described species worldwide and about 1400 described species in America north of Mexico. All tachinids are internal parasitoids of other arthropods during their larval stage. Hosts are primarily immatures of moths, sawflies and beetles, and adults of beetles and bugs.

This tachinid fly is one of my favorites. It's a huge, hairy fly with a blue metallic abdomen. I frequently encounter it nectaring on flowers and mucking about amongst the vegetation, never on offal or other nasty things like many of the more disgusting fly varieties. I would not allow just any fly to walk my skin with impunity; Archytas is just, well, special. (My affection is probably misplaced, and this bugger is just as filthy and revolting as all the others, but what can I say?  One has to find something pleasant to think about.)

Live adult flies photographed in the wild at Winfield IL USA. Various times late June - October.
Special thanks to Dr. James E. O'Hara, Ph.D. North American Dipterist Society for identifying these specimens.

Archytas of Tarentum (c. 428-350 B.C.) - Greek statesman, military commander, leading Pythagorean mathematician and philosopher; often called the father of mathematical mechanics. His theories on the exact sciences were based on two principles: that there is no absolute difference between the organic and the inorganic world; and that the law of causality cannot interpret phenomena. In mathematics, Archytas was the first to distinguish between arithmetic and geometric progressions; he also found a solution to the problem of doubling the cube. He is believed to be the inventor of the screw and the pulley, and is considered a forefather of mechanical flight. Aristotle wrote a treatise on his works, and there is a crater on Earth's moon named after him.