Bare-headed Stiletto Fly
Female, ventral
Adelaide Hills
White-striped Stiletto Fly
Dorsal, wings open, white b/g
 
                      
White-striped Stiletto Fly (Pipinnipons fascipennis)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Flies (Diptera)
Family: Stiletto Fly (Therevidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: White-striped Stiletto Fly (Pipinnipons fascipennis)
This Photo:     🔍Dorsal, wings close🔎

Thank you Dr Chris Lambkin & Dr Martin Hauser for confirming and Kaye Proudley for helping with the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Adelaide Hills and possibly elsewhere
~12mm long.
Wings are striped brown and black. Red legs, with white socks on the front legs. White striped abdomen.
A very long tongue, which is generally more retracted that some of the images here. Being in the fridge to sleep seems to cause some insects to extract their tongue.
Long antennae for a fly, but not as long as the stiletto fly above (Agapophytus aterrimus).
As a bit of a trick, we've found photographing on white and then black backgrounds can show different shades/colours; particularly in the wings. Here however, that wasn't planned. The specimen just decided to try and escape before we had finished photographing it and landed on the body of the light we were using

Copyright © 2017-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 29-Nov-2017
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.