Zaprionus indianus is a recent immigrant to North America. This native of Africa was first found in Brazil in 1996, then in Florida in 2005. Now it has found its way to Illinois near the Wisconsin border. Not too surprising that I found one as it reached Canada a few years ago.
Quite a lovely beast. The black highlights on the white stripes are amazing. The good news is that the ovipositor is not very hard and it only lays eggs in the bad spots on fruit. It can't break thick skin. But it does like raspberries, which grow in my yard.
Photographed with my standard rig. LED lighting, the whole body composed of ~70 images using my 29mm UKA F3 lens on extension, the close up with my Olympus 10X .3NA objective with a 200mm Pentax as a tube lens. Approximately 160 images.
Processed with Zerene, a combo of Pmax and Dmap.
African Fig Fly
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- MarkSturtevant
- Posts: 1947
- Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
- Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
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MarkSturvant wrote
The long legged flies I find in my yard are native (I believe) but the ones I have found in Hawaii come from Florida and Taiwan. They hitch-hiked on the roots of tropical plants brought there to embellish paradise.
Keith Short
True, yet so many of the insects we encounter every day are exactly that. Many of the hornets and wasps I have photographed have European origins. And the lovely green leaf weevils as well. I understand that Medflies (Ceratitis capitata) are lovely, though (happily) I have yet to find one.Can't say I like to see an invasive insect...
The long legged flies I find in my yard are native (I believe) but the ones I have found in Hawaii come from Florida and Taiwan. They hitch-hiked on the roots of tropical plants brought there to embellish paradise.
Keith Short