Fearless Fly (long post)

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NikonUser
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Fearless Fly (long post)

Post by NikonUser »

Can you imagine jumping onto the back of a stinging , and biting, beast about 3x your size?
Well, female Thick-headed Flies (Conopidae) do it routinely.
They 'attack' a bee or a wasp in flight, landing on its back and hanging on with their large clawed feet.
They are predators in the slow-killing regime - parasitoids.
Their modus operandi is to lay an egg INSIDE the unfortunate host, the larva then eats the host from the inside finally killing it.
Because bees and wasps, and just about every insect, have a tough exoskeleton that is almost inpenetratable these flies have to be sneaky.
Insect exoskeleton is a series of strong plates connected by a thin membrane for flexibility. The female fly has an apparatus at the end of her abdomen with which she can pry open the gap between 2 of the bee/wasp dorsal plates and insert an egg into the host. Remember she is doing this while the host is in flight and likely trying to dislodge the fly.

A recent text suggests two ways to achieve this 1) ".. a clamp on the end of her abdomen where she grabs onto the host and slices it open ..."
2) ".. a can-opener, which is used to prise open the abdominal segments of the host species."
Right wing removed to show abdomen

Top: lateral view of female. Schenider-KREUZNACH Apo-Componon 4/45 @ f4 + 1/2 stop; single flash; Zerene
Bottom: business end of abdomen. 10x Nikon CFN finite; Zerene
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NU.
student of entomology
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” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
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JH
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Post by JH »

Very interesting - thanks for posting.
And nice pictures
Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Never knew about these, thanks! Does anyone know what that crazy mouth is for? It looks like it might be used to grab onto the host and give additional leverage to the abdomen.

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Crazy and interesting.
Even the antennas are strange.
Thanks for sharing.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

Beatsy
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Post by Beatsy »

Well I never! Fascinating.

Poor bees! But wasps totally deserve it :) :twisted:

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