Thread subject: Diptera.info :: the most crazy fly I've seen so far! Acroceridae - Cyrtus gibbus
#1
Hi
* locality - Silgueiros - Viseu - PORTUGAL
* date - 2007.06.15
* size - 7 mm (medium fly)
* habitat - openland, near river - near Quercus sp. above dry and burnt (?) Rubus sp.
* substrate - hovering with other acrocerid.
This fly was an amazing thing to see!!! It is breathtaking to see this fly at the first time. In dorsal view... we cannot see the head.
It has a proboscis among the legs! All proboscis is yellow but at the extremity is a little dark. Legs are not totally yellow.
Third segment in antenna very short with apical hair , so Cyrtinae. Inside this we have 5 possible genus:
Cyrtus, Opsebius, Paracrocera, Acrocera y Ogcodes -- the last is totally black. The others have small proboscis, but Cyrtus has long proboscis as you can see. So probably Cyrtus. There is Cyrtus gibbus for Portugal, but the legs ARE NOT totally yellow. Neither can be C. pusillus because probosci is not totally black. My spanish friend Gallego helped me with biblio but we don?t have the descriptions for other possible species...
One thing is sure: this fly amazes me totally!!
EDIT ---> Title changed from "the most crazy fly I've seen so far! Acroceridae - Cyrtus sp. which one??" to "the most crazy fly I've seen so far! Acroceridae - Cyrtus gibbus"
#5
assisting.
and, yes, it is alive!!!
impressive.
#6
it looks like a wasp!!
This fly is spiders' parasitoid. Under flies I spotted Thanatus cf. vulgaris/atratus (Philodromidae) , and some Pardosa sp. and Hogna radiata (both Lycosidae) wandering around.
But it seems that acrocerids.. "apparently have no fixed host-parasitoid relationships at the species level". And attacks spiders that make web? (not sure about this. But lycosids and philodromids don?t build web. )
#7
Congratulations, Jorge!
#8
Amazing creature, Jorge! I can't wait till I find one myself...
#9
i guess this is why i look at flies (see http://www.diptera.info/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=16&thread_id=6851 )
you can find the most amazing living creatures under flies. nice pics!
Posted by
fleabag on 15-06-2007 21:01
#10
hehe ..what a freak
Edited by
fleabag on 15-06-2007 21:02
Posted by
conopid on 15-06-2007 21:03
#11
What an incredible looking fly. I have always wanted to find an Acrocerid, and now I want to find one even more!
#12
I think you win "Fly of the month", Jorge
Posted by
crex on 15-06-2007 21:28
#13
OMG, what a weird looking creature, but that unusual body form probably fill a purpose. I'm not sure we have
Acroceridae here up in the north ... Nice find Jorge!
#14
I found this fly in this zone: http://tinyurl.com/227zf6 (near that rectangular building, about 20 m to the right - not in the shadow zone neither under the dense trees).
I testify the beginning of mating dance: the flies were flying up and down very quick. The distinctive colours, and the peculiar flight... called me
Thank you all!
#15
according to Tony Irwin, in dipterist's handbook, it seems that all acrocerids were reared from lycosids spiders.
The way that larva reaches the spiders is curious. The adults put eggs on the ground and when they mature, the larva can jump
and seek for spiders - and enters in joints... and then go to the abdomen. In IV instar stage... they ate all spider...
#16
jorgemotalmeida wrote:
according to Tony Irwin, in dipterist's handbook, it seems that all acrocerids were reared from lycosids spiders.
The
Dipterists Handbook was written 30 years ago - I'm not sure whether more recent rearing records of (British) acrocerids include other families of spiders. Certainly other families are involved in North America.
The Amateur Entomologists' Society has plans to revise the
Dipterists Handbook, and publish a completely new edition. Although aimed primarily at British Dipterists, there will be plenty of useful up-to-date information for everyone when it appears.
#17
great news! and when will be ready the new edition?
#18
jorgemotalmeida wrote:
great news! and when will be ready the new edition?
I'm not sure. The new edition will be like the last one - there will be quite a number of people involved in writing it, and the process of getting the new (or old!
) authors together has only just started. I guess it will be at least a year before it's available - most of the authors are likely to be busy with other things over the summer.
I'll try to keep everyone posted on progress.
#19
I have seen nothing in these pictures that is in contradiction with
Cyrtus gibbus as described in Die Fliegen der palaearktischen Region by Sack (1936).
#20
Paul Beuk wrote:
I have seen nothing in these pictures that is in contradiction with Cyrtus gibbus as described in Die Fliegen der palaearktischen Region by Sack (1936).
And it was spotted here before.
Anyway one of the most interesting flies I've ever seen since Myopa picta.
Is there any information about the size of planidium for these flies?? Any scheme how it seems?
I didn?t know that "They are cosmopolitan in distribution but rarely observed in most places; the majority of the over 500 species are known from fewer than 10 specimens."
in wikipedia.org . It lacks there a link for diptera gallery.