African Fig Fly

Images taken in a controlled environment or with a posed subject. All subject types.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

BugEZ
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Loves Park Illinois

African Fig Fly

Post by BugEZ »

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.

Image

Image

BugEZ
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Loves Park Illinois

Post by BugEZ »

and a stereo on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/YAU6DT

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1946
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
Contact:

Post by MarkSturtevant »

Wow. Nice pictures.
Can't say I like to see an invasive insect, even one that may not be economically or ecologically significant. But this is very pretty.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

BugEZ
Posts: 850
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2011 7:15 pm
Location: Loves Park Illinois

Post by BugEZ »

MarkSturvant wrote
Can't say I like to see an invasive insect...
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.

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

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic