Bug FAQHornworm Tachinid Fly
Archytas apicifer · Order: Diptera · Family: Tachinidae
Archytas apicifer is a medium to large tachinid fly about 10-15 mm long and shows bright patterns with noticeable bristles on its head or abdomen. Adults feed on flower nectar and act as pollinators, while their larvae develop inside caterpillars such as forest tent caterpillars, fall webworms, tomato fruitworms, corn earworms and cutworms. The species occurs across Canada, the United States and parts of Central and South America including Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Many tachinid flies, including this species, have robust bodies with bright patterns and conspicuous bristles on the head or on abdominal segments four to six.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Archytas apicifer measures roughly 10 to 15 mm, placing it in the medium to large size range for Nearctic tachinid flies.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
The species was described by Johann Friedrich Jaennicke in 1867 and is named after the ancient philosopher Archytas.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adult flies feed on flower nectar and help pollinate some plants. The larvae are internal parasitoids of several caterpillar species, including forest tent caterpillars, fall webworms, tomato fruitworms, corn earworms and cutworms.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Larvae develop inside host caterpillars, eventually killing them as they complete their development.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
Archytas apicifer belongs to the family Tachinidae, one of the largest fly families with about 10 000 species worldwide, so many other tachinid flies may look similar.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 36 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, California, Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Missouri, Arkansas.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What do adult Archytas apicifer flies eat?
Adults feed on flower nectar and can act as pollinators.
Source: Wikipedia
What insects do the larvae of Archytas apicifer parasitize?
The larvae are internal parasitoids of forest tent caterpillars, fall webworms, tomato fruitworms, corn earworms and cutworms.
Source: Wikipedia
Where is Archytas apicifer found?
It occurs in Canada, the United States and several countries in Central and South America, including Mexico, Colombia and the Caribbean.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Tachinidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archytas_apicifer
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.