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Fruit Fly with Ants on it's Wings

Xanthaciura sp.

Description:

An amazing little Fruit Fly of the Family Tephritidae with incredibly realistic ants on it´s wings. They look as though they are biting onto the abdomen of the fly. This fly was only about 3 mm long, but even from a distance, it looks like ants are feeding on the fly (4th picture). The outline of the wing membrane is scarcely visible. This is definitely of the genus Xanthaciura but it could be either X. insecta or X. tetraspina. The last has 4 spines on the scutellum instead of 2, but none of the pictures I have show the scutellum clearly enough. http://bugguide.net/node/view/105965 http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Tax... http://bugguide.net/node/view/342770/bgi... http://bugguide.net/node/view/406449

Habitat:

Came to an ultraviolet light in the garden, San Cristobal de Las Casas, 2,200 meters.

Notes:

See Cindy Bingham Keiser's spotting of Trupanea nigricornis (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/790...) from San Diego, California, which resembles Goniurellia tridens, mentioned below. Cindy's species has the ant-like creature on the wings facing away from the body. This source on Flicker (https://www.flickr.com/photos/drewgardne...), shows a similar Fruit Fly, also about 3 mm long from the mid-east, but the "insects" on the wings look less ant-like and also face outwards from the body. In a comment to this page, Dr. Brigitte Howarth, has identified it as Goniurellia tridens (Hendel, 1910) of the Tephritidae and says this species is known from Turkmenistan, Bukhara, India, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE and Oman. It breeds in flowerheads of Asteriacae. For very interesting reading, see this paper (http://cadra.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/fr...), where Franz Heikertinger rejects natural selection as the source of mimetic resemblances and reduces such resemblances to pure coincidences. What possible survival tactic can be attributed to the patterns on this fly? If anything, it looks more tasty to a predator who would be getting 3 bugs in one shot. However, in the last picture of my series is a photo by Stephanie Sanchez, in which 2 ants are attacking a small beetle (much in the same position as the "ants" on the wings of the fly). If a predator or scavenger saw this, it might think twice about messing with something being eaten by ants. See also "Ants, Spiders or Wishful Thinking" by Morgan Jackson http://www.biodiversityinfocus.com/blog/.... (http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/1...), http://www.zu.ac.ae/main/en/colleges/col....

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14 Comments

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 9 years ago

Thank you David. I also believe that evolution is far more complicated than just random mutation and and survival of the fittest.
Thank you Karen, I hadn't noticed that before with the Orangetips. Very interesting!
Thank so much Jae and Luis.

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 9 years ago

I meant to say I missed it. :)

Jae
Jae 9 years ago

Oh wow great spotting and what an amazing fruit fly, it had me completely fooled.

KarenSaxton
KarenSaxton 9 years ago

There are butterflies in Africa with dragonflies on them(on their wings) and when they fly, they appear as if they've been caught and are being eaten. Very similar niche evolution IMO http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/360...

And since there are several very similar ones of different species. Evolution gets the nod. Two more(not mine) http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/553...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/541...

davidzoellick
davidzoellick 9 years ago

In my opinion this is convincing evidence for intelligent design.

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 9 years ago

Thank you Mark (like your little kangaroo) :)
Thank you Maria :)

Maria dB
Maria dB 9 years ago

Wonderful spotting and very interesting information!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Super spotting Lauren.

JoshuaGSmith
JoshuaGSmith 9 years ago

Your welcome.

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 9 years ago

Thank you Joshua, you gave me a place to start. I researched these for a long time and finally found it, at least to genus. I also had fun with other papers that speculate on the possible evolution of these "ant pictures" on the wings, whether intentional or coincidental look-alikes - and for what purpose? It is also of consideration in this debate, that these flies are incredibly small at only 3 mm.

JoshuaGSmith
JoshuaGSmith 9 years ago

Check out Trupania flies and related genera.

LaurenZarate
LaurenZarate 9 years ago

Thanks Nuwan and Rob :)

RobThacker
RobThacker 9 years ago

Nice spotting Lauren

NuwanChathuranga
NuwanChathuranga 9 years ago

Cool!

LaurenZarate
Spotted by
LaurenZarate

Chiapas, Mexico

Spotted on Jul 7, 2014
Submitted on Jul 9, 2014

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