Can anyone ID this fly

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nzmacro
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Can anyone ID this fly

Post by nzmacro »

Found a very interesting thread at Dpreview about a certain fly. Now I've never seen a fly do this before ...... outside of the robber fly. Its actually eating another fly and yet, it looks like an ordinary type of fly. Take a look, its interesting behaviour and also great shots :D

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read. ... e=13790473

So if you have any idea, post it up. The guy has asked a museum for an ID, but I'm not sure he will get an answer.

Thanks macro and microholics. :wink:

Danny.

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Post by Guest »

I have seen these colours before, but that was on those black & white striped flies. I haven't seen the behaviour before either.
I'm very curious aubout the outcome of this ID

All the best,

Tom

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Post by GreenLarry »

This seems strange for a fly as i always believed they dont possess the jaws that would enable them to chew food,like a beetle or spider would.
They prefer to eat soup!

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Post by S. Alden »

From my "bug guys":


Empis (Pachymeria) tessellata Fabricius (Dance Fly)

Dance flies look and act a lot like Robber-flies, from which they can be distinguished by their less bulging eyes and the lack of the trough between their eyes, and the fact that their larva, as well as their adults, are carnivorous. They are called Dance flies because members of the genus Hilara can often be seen flying low over the water in a twisting spiralling manner that to our eyes looks much like a dance. Dance flies are also of interest because of their courtship. Because of their predatory nature the males often feel it is advisable to offer the female a gift of food to keep her occupied while he is mating with her. In the least complicated species the male simply offers the female an insect he has caught, in more advanced species the male wraps the gift in a ball of cotton spun from special glands in his front legs, and in some decadent species the male offers the female an empty ball of silk safe in knowledge he will have done the deed and escaped before she catches on to his deception.

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Feel free to post this on that forum if you like Danny.
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Post by nzmacro »

Hey thanks Sue :D , I will post it up for him. Fascinating behaviour, because somehow they don't look like robber flies, obviously must be related though.

Larry, you are right about the jaws. They do tend to suck and regurgitate, but robber flies are deadly killers and even in flight. The shots this guy has shown, look more like some other types of flies though.

Anyway thanks macroholics :D and I'll post that up Sue.

Danny.

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Post by S. Alden »

Danny

I looked at the dance fly in my book, and something does not seem just right...the legs...they should be longer I think. I will get back with the bug guys again and ask them about that because it is a major difference.
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Post by Ken Ramos »

From Sues "bug guys..."
... "the male offers the female an empty ball of silk safe in knowledge he will have done the deed and escaped before she catches on to his deception."

Sneaky little buggers arn't they? ".....they can see paradise by the dashboard lights 8)"
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Post by S. Alden »

Ken Ramos wrote:From Sues "bug guys..."
... "the male offers the female an empty ball of silk safe in knowledge he will have done the deed and escaped before she catches on to his deception."

Sneaky little buggers arn't they? ".....they can see paradise by the dashboard lights 8)"
Meatloaf - Bat out of H&^^
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Yeah you're right :lol: I thought for sure Tom W. would jump on that one. :D
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Post by nzmacro »

Ken, you are getting worse M8t :D . You have been drinking "Whiskey on the rocks" again huh. :wink:

Danny.

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Post by twebster »

Hi ya' guys :D

I haven't been ignoring this post. I've been busy trying to figure out to which family this fly belongs. I can tell you every family he doesn't belong to :!: :shock:

Flies don't chew food items as we would customarily think. Flies have no jaws. The jaws have been fused into a proboscis. Predatory flies do have rather muscular and serrated tongues within the proboscis. A horse fly's tongue is quite broad and has row after row of cross-running ribs that look like short sections of saw blades. When rasped against a prey or food item those serrated tongues can quickly reduce the prey or food item to hash. What we call a fly bite is really that proboscis penetrating our skin.

I'll keep working on the ID, although my specialty is really parasitic flies and wasps. :D

Best regards to all as always, :D
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Post by nzmacro »

Looks like we found. I decided to take a look through bug guide and came across this one

http://bugguide.net/node/view/5493/bgimage

Thanks folks.

Danny.

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