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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » "Acalyptratae" » Nerioidea » Stilt-legged Flies (Micropezidae) » Taeniapterinae » Taeniaptera » Taeniaptera trivittata
Photo#21315
Some sort of weird looking ant with wings? - Taeniaptera trivittata
Copyright © 2005 Tom Bentley

Some sort of weird looking ant with wings? - Taeniaptera trivittata
Elgin/Bluff Spring Fen, Cook County, Illinois, USA
June 18, 2005
Found a whole bunch of these guys in a marsh area. They were constantly flitting their wings like some wasps. Any ideas?
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Contributed by Tom Bentley on 21 June, 2005 - 9:17pm
Last updated 16 June, 2009 - 10:44am

Moved
Moved from Taeniaptera.
… Tom Bentley, 16 June, 2009 - 10:44am login or register to post comments

Taeniaptera trivittata
This is Taeniaptera trivittata, a fairly convincing ichneumonid wasp mimic as you mention!
… Morgan Jackson, 16 June, 2009 - 10:42am login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Taeniapterinae.
… Joel Kits, 15 June, 2009 - 5:18pm login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from Stilt-legged Flies.
… Keith Bayless, 8 March, 2007 - 1:19am login or register to post comments

Micros
These are Micropezid flies, also known as stilt-legged flies. There are apparently about 30 species in NA and little is known of their biology. Many are dung eaters. They seem to mimic large carpenter ants and several have fooled me into thinking they were Ichneumid wasps. A friend recently reported seeing a train of them on a tree trunk. I have never observed this.
… Herschel Raney, 21 June, 2005 - 10:57pm login or register to post comments

 
Herschel...thanks for your he
Herschel...thanks for your help. Very interesting!
… Tom Bentley, 21 June, 2005 - 11:06pm login or register to post comments

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