An unusual fly: red-belted hoverfly, Brachypalpoides lentus – a sawfly mimic. The larva is yet to be described. About 20 observations in the whole UK; 172 globally.
From Hyde Park, London (June 2023). Standing right next to Peter Pan's statue.
Apologies for the poor pictures, but here's a little bee-mimicking robber fly, after and before catching a tiny bee for dinner. I followed this wily hunter around for quite a while, and he wasn't pleased with my interference so he didn't let me get very close.
A beautiful crane fly, hanging inside a sunlit bush. (This is who I was trying to photograph when I took the picture of the syrphid fly I posted yesterday. I recommend sticking your head under a bush occasionally. There's a whole other world in there.)
My favourite NZ observation on #iNaturalist from the last couple of days is this stable fly photographed at Waihi by helenmacky.
It's a handsome enough fly, and it's a good photo, but what makes it stand out is the gang of at least seven pseudoscorpions all hitching a ride on it.
Habt ihr euch schon einmal gefragt, warum Insekten oft Borsten und andere Auswüchse an den Beinen haben? Sie können gut als Kamm benutzt werden, um z. B. die Augen zu säubern. Märzfliege - Bibio marci
The bee parasites are out en force. Blood bees, nomad bees, and worst of all, the bee body snatchers: conopid flies. It’s tough to be a busy bee minding your own business…
Das Insektenjahr hat irgendwie erst so richtig angefangen, wenn man wieder die ersten Bilder des Großen #Wollschweber (#Bombylius major) im Kasten hat.
The larvae of these flies are all internal parasites, "most of aculeate (stinging) Hymenoptera. Adult females aggressively intercept their hosts in flight to deposit eggs." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conopidae
A little fly (Scathophaga?) who kept me company for a long time yesterday. It makes me very happy when a little creature like this deigns to hang out with me. I had to take the pictures with my left (non-dominant) hand because he was perched on my right hand, which made it difficult.
I've had trouble taking pictures lately. I don't know if the problem is my eyes, my hands, my imagination, or my patience.
It has been a while so I figured now was as good a time as any to fire it back up. I don't know for sure who this handsome stilt-legged fly is, but I love its face and its coloring.
New year, new lens. The Laowa 100mm 2x macro which on the Canon includes auto-aperture. Canon D90 with an agreeable fly who posed for me. Great detail in the eyes, happy with that! #macrophotography#diptera#flies#insects
... competing with wing loss in flies (flightlessness), at 25 events counted to date. Can't find an up to date citation; a neat phylogenetic tree of #Diptera marking all the apomorphic events was shown to me by Darren Williams. There's Wagner & Liebherr 1992 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/016953479290047F listing 22 insect orders with flightless species: almost all of them have species with secondary wing loss.