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Greetings,

I was busy photographing a large Araneus diadema female who had just captured a bee, and was actively wrapping it up, not minding at all my close approach.

Then to my surprise I noticed a small fly, some 2-3mm long, pacing all over the captured bee, indifferent to the spider and obviously feeling quite at home.

Is it a known behaviour, and do you have any ID suggestions ?

general picture

closer look at the tiny fly

Regards,

Dimitri

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Hello Dimitri,

some Milichiid flies are known to show such a "kleptoparasitic" behaviour. But I can't tell you if the fly on your pics is reall a Milichiid.

Have a look at the following thread:
http://www.dipter...ead_id=528

cheers - martin

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Martin,

Thanks for the suggested thread.

It was a pleasure to see another beautiful and informative picture by Sarah (a regular visitor to the insectes.org forum).
From there on a hop to Irina Brake's site narrowed the search even more to Desmometopa sp (Milichiidae).

I've thus learnt a number of things to-night.

Dimitri

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I also have a photo of 2 small flies having interest to Ceriagrion sp. in sprider web. Photo from Thailand.

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It is not the first time they popped up in the forum:
http://www.dipter...ead_id=528