Reader Jacques Hausser in Switzerland sent the last installment of The Hoverfly Chronicles (also known as syrphid flies). Many syrphid species (dipterans [two wings] in the family Syrphidae) are Batesian mimics of wasps and bees (order Hymenoptera: four wings). As you can see below, the mimicry can be astonishing. If you saw these species in the wild, you’d surely stay away from them!
Sphaerophoria scripta. Larvae are aphidophageous. This is a migratory species even crossing the Alps. It has several generations each year (up to 9) and the spring generations migrate northwards, while the summer generations migrate back southwards:
Syritta pipiens: note the thick femora of the hind legs. Larvae are detritivorous and live on manure or rotten plants. I found an interesting (and old) paper about their visual flight control:
Eupeodes luniger, a famous migratory species as well:
Scaeva pyrastri—really black-and-white:
Melissa Chen sent the gory afterglow of mantid sex (reader identification welcome):
I took a cool picture of a female devouring a male in South Africa. I spent a good half hour gawking at the whole spectacle.
Reader Erin in Nova Scotia shows us how cold it is up there:
This isn’t a photo of wildlife, but I see you put some pics up that weren’t of animals. I took this pic of our field about a week ago. We had just had a storm and ice was covering the trees. This is in Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada.
It must be challenging to do macrophotography of syrphids.
A pop quiz: the cannibal mantis may not be eating ‘her’ husband. Can a reader figure out why?
To pre-empt his eating her young or making babies with another lady mantis?
Nope. Look at the wings.
Was he already dead? His wings don’t look so green …
Both are in a juvenile stage. It is probably adelphophagy.
Close enough. Although these are not fetuses.
Who among us hasn’t had his mate bite his head off in public? Luckily for us humans, in our case it’s metaphor and hyperbole. Usually.
We have been spoiled with great mantid picture this week! My understanding is the fellow wouldn’t live long after coïtus anyway, and that the female doesn’t always snack on the dad-to-be – apparently males have been observed eating the female after, which is generational suicide. I guess there’s no cost to eating the male once the deed is done and, hey, free food! It also seems the male does a more thorough job without is thinking bits so sometime they are removed beforehand (again, lucky for us we are metaphorical).
Is that a European mantis? It seems relatively un-exotic for an African variety.
The structure in Erin’s photo looks out of place – is that an ice fishing shack?
Mantis breeders, yes that breed exist, tell me that decapitation improves breeding.
However, the male mantis in the photograph appears to have failed to lock his reproductive structures within the female, A Darwin Award?
Oh and on the mimics, are wasps really so unappetizing or is it just the sting that the color scheme warns of? Birds eat wasps and bees, don’t they?
And presumably the patterns look different to a bird than it does to us; I wonder if there are mimics that resemble non-edibles in the bird vision spectrum but don’t to us?
> If you saw these species in the wild, you’d surely stay away from them!
As a bird, perhaps. I always found they have a characteristic flight pattern, unlike any wasp – which are much noisier, too.
That last point is intriguing, coming to think of it: Why don’t they resemble the mimicked species in noise, as well? Wouldn’t predators learn to distinguish them by it?
They fooled me for many years. They looked enough like the real thing I figured they would sting or bite.
Great pics. Love the black and white fly.
Shout out to Noel, in Nova Scotia! Glad you weathered that bruiser of a storm.
Lovely pictures all. It’s nice to learn how diverse the bee-flies are.
Pet peeve: We work hard to get the right name on the animals, and then treat the plants like so much rubbish. Plants have names, too!
(The first looks like Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea. The yellow one looks like a member of the mustard family Brassicaceae, assuming the fruit and flower go together, though there are more stamens than is typical.)
I’m sorry that you’re peeved about the plants, but I do ask readers to provide latin names of plants and animals. Sometimes, though, zoologists don’t know plant names (I’m bad at that) and it would be onerous to find them out. I appreciate your contributing the names, but really, we do not “treat the plants like so much rubbish” here. That’s simply unjustified carping.
Sorry. I muss confess I’m one of those lazzy zoologists rarely looking for plants’ names.
On the pictures, it’s rare to have the necessary details to identify both the plant and the insect… and in the field, hey, it’s just another exciting insect on the next plant!
But I try to correct myself, in a limited way: I have identified and photographied every spontaneous flowers in my garden. I have more than 80 species yet…
“Plant blindness”, as botanists sometimes call it, is far to common to apologize for. And I’ve chased insects with a camera enough to know how little importance those plants can have at that time! (And I rarely if ever got insect photos as nice as those displayed here.)
It’s just that sometimes, on a gray day with so much botany work piled up I can’t even think it will ever be finished, I look at lovely photo with an insect and a plant, I just want to scream, “But what about the plant! It’s there too!”
Jaques, sounds like you have an interesting set of plant photos as well as animals! If your bee-flies move as much as ours do, getting clear pictures like yours is really an accomplishment.
Excellent syrphid portraits–as usual!
Nice catch of a nice catch, Melissa!
Erin, that snowscape is stunning!