Calif. robber fly

Eric F · Post by **Eric F** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:52 am

I've just returned from some travels -- to find a new Mac version of ZS (Thanks Rik); life is good! To celebrate, I ran a 46 image stack of a California robber fly (with unusual antennae) -- Myelaphus melas. As I just communicated to Wayne Baker, on the Macro and Micro Technique and Technical Discussions forum, this PMax stack ran in 7 min. on my iMac.
Canon EOS 40D with MP-E 65mm macro @ 1x, f/4; 24EX Twin Lite; slight editing in PS.

Cheers,

Eric

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 10:12 am

Wow, interesting fly!

I see the web has hardly anything about these flies. Even bugguide.net has only one picture in the genus, and that's a different species.

Are they very uncommon, or just not often photographed?

--Rik

Eric F · Post by **Eric F** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 10:44 am

Rik,

This fly is a Calif. endemic, with fairly specific habitat needs: along watercourses in otherwise dry habitats. The other US species, M. lobicornis, is found in several additional western US states (including Calif.). These flies can be occasionally found in numbers within their restricted habitats.

Interestingly, the BugGuide fly is actually misidentified (it is really Dioctria pusio, a relative of Myelaphus), so I need to correct that ID and submit this photo!