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 Bombyliidae - Villa sp?? soil collecting..
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| nick upton |
Posted on 27-08-2011 13:36
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Member Location: Posts: 815 Joined: 12.03.10 |
Can anyone help ID this bee fly? Maybe a Villa sp.?? though I can't find a good match for it. It was flexing its abdomen in some dry soil behind a beach on Samos, a Greek Island within sight of the Turkish coast. I read that some female bee flies have soil/sand collecting chambers on their abdomens and that they coat their eggs in soil, maybe to camouflage them/make them heavier, before flicking them into the burrows of the solitary bee species they parasitise. Neat.. I guess this bee fly was collecting soil for this purpose. Another bee fly - Hemipenthes velutina I think - was doing the same thing nearby. 22.8.2011 c13mm Samos north coast, Greece. Edited by nick upton on 11-09-2011 20:01 Nick Upton - naturalist and photographer |
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| nick upton |
Posted on 11-09-2011 20:01
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Member Location: Posts: 815 Joined: 12.03.10 |
Any ID help welcomed!
Nick Upton - naturalist and photographer |
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| jorgemotalmeida |
Posted on 11-09-2011 20:13
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 Member Location: Posts: 9295 Joined: 05.06.06 |
Villa sp. |
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| nick upton |
Posted on 11-09-2011 20:50
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Member Location: Posts: 815 Joined: 12.03.10 |
Thanks Jorge.
Nick Upton - naturalist and photographer |
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but don't see the image in the post.
