dung fly

Earlier images, not yet re-categorized. All subject types. Not for new images.

Moderators: Chris S., Pau, Beatsy, rjlittlefield, ChrisR

Wim van Egmond
Posts: 826
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:28 am
Location: Berkel en Rodenrijs, the Netherlands
Contact:

dung fly

Post by Wim van Egmond »

This is one of my favourite flies. It is called dung fly but it does not feed on dung. It hunts other flies and insects. But you can often see it on dung because it lays its eggs in the dung and the larvae are also predators feeding on the larvae of the dung eaters. tasty!

They have a nice yellow coat:)

Wim

Image

puzzledpaul
Posts: 414
Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:15 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by puzzledpaul »

Excellent job, with the colours really complementing each other :)

(seems we've been getting some of these in our garden, too ...)

pp

beetleman
Posts: 3578
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:19 am
Location: Southern New Hampshire USA

Post by beetleman »

Very nice stack Wim. Look at that detail where the wing attaches to the thorax :shock: I wonder what that feathery thing does (left on the wing attachment) :-k
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda

puzzledpaul
Posts: 414
Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:15 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by puzzledpaul »

<< I wonder what that feathery thing does >>

From my experience with similar flies, it's an indicator that shows me I've over exposed the pic or been 'over the top' with levels / curves :)

Probably an arm(wing)pit duster ... or a sensor of some sort?

pp

MacroLuv
Posts: 1964
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:36 pm
Location: Croatia

Post by MacroLuv »

I wonder what that faucet lever like thing does. :shock: It is visible on the puzzledpaul's pics too.
The meaning of beauty is in sharing with others.

P.S.
Noticing of my "a" and "the" and other grammar
errors are welcome. :D

Wim van Egmond
Posts: 826
Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2006 9:28 am
Location: Berkel en Rodenrijs, the Netherlands
Contact:

Post by Wim van Egmond »

I'll post a close up of the wing base. It has these reduced wings called halteres. They act like a sort of gyroscopes in flight. The diptera family of insects (flies and mosquitos and relatives) are excellent flyers because of this specialised wing design. There should be a lot of info on the web about this. But I don't know what these feathery structures do. It would be interesting to sort out this anatomy!

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/20 ... .Zo.r.html

Wim

puzzledpaul
Posts: 414
Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2006 4:15 am
Location: UK
Contact:

Post by puzzledpaul »

<< They act like a sort of gyroscopes in flight. >>

Interestingly, they're also used when not flying - just settled on a leaf / blade of grass - which is subjected to gusts of wind :)

Amazing creatures ...

pp

Ken Ramos
Posts: 7208
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

Awesome photograph Wim, the haltere does look like a faucet handle :lol: Amazing some of the organs an insect has but then when you think about it, our ears help us to maintain a certain degree of balance. Get a really bad ear infection and see how clumsy you are. :D

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic