Wasp Mimicking Fly
S1, Leg details
Snowy Stiletto Fly
Female, dorsal
| Wasp Mimicking Fly S1, Leg details | | Snowy Stiletto Fly Female, dorsal | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Flies (Diptera) | ||||
| Family: | Stiletto Fly (Therevidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Wasp Mimicking Fly (Agapophytus aterrimus) | ||||
| This Photo: | S1, Facial hair | ||||
Thank you Dr Chris Lambkin for identifying, Reiner Richter & Dr Martin Hauser for confirming and Dr Ken Walker & Tony Daley for helping with the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere 1st Live Photo on-line: Tony, who id'ed this to genus, said the strange hair on the back is "elongate scale-like setae on the scutum". They have a large size range between ~8 to ~10mm long. This beautiful fly has a very long mouth/proboscis and antennae. Bascially black with 2 orange/yellow bands on it's wings. Note the bright yellow halteres. The lower front tibia (middle part of the leg) does seem to have a small orange/pale band. Ken Walker saw the observation on Bowerbird and contacted Chris Lambkin who kindly narrowed it down to species. We photographed a copulating pair, and apart from one (we assume male) being smaller (9.5mm vs 10.5mm), we couldn't differentiate them - they looked exactly the same. | |||||
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