A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
I had a really hard time with this one. Because of it's combination of small size, wing venation, humped back, antennae, long proboscis and overall shape. I was struggling between the Hybotidae, a tiny genus (Geron) of the Bombyliidae and the Empididae or Dance Flies. I think, but am still not sure, that it is a tiny Dance Fly. While known to be predators (in some species, males will catch prey, wrap it up and offer it to females as a gift prior to mating), they are also known to feed on nectar as these are doing. There are humpbacked Empidids and there are Empidids with long probosces and the antennae also match. It is possible it is a Hybotid that is of questionable position between the Empididae and the Hybotidae. These are only 2 mm in length and are taking nectar from a very unusual flower (see Spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/203...).
Forest, about 5 km up Mt. Huitepec, west of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.
Empididae: http://www.amateuranthecologist.com/2015... http://www.cirrusimage.com/fly_dance_hyb... Hybotidae: ftp://delta-intkey.com/britin/dip/www/hybotida.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybotidae http://www.invertebradosdehuesca.com/201... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/634... Bombyliidae: http://waynesword.palomar.edu/redmite6.h... http://bugguide.net/node/view/493578 http://www.fnanaturesearch.org/index.php...
Spotted on Aug 20, 2015
Submitted on Mar 7, 2016
No Comments