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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » "Nematocera" (Non-Brachycera) » Bibionomorpha » March Flies (Bibionidae) » Bibio » Bibio femoratus
Photo#277606
Assassin bug (I think), but what species? - Bibio femoratus
Copyright © 2009 Matt Simon

Assassin bug (I think), but what species? - Bibio femoratus
Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
May 2, 2009
This looks like an assassin bug (perhaps genus Reduvius?), but the antennae are anomalously short. I also cannot find a match for the red femora on all the legs. I found several of these during the middle of the day in warm weather around the trunk of an ancient silver maple in the Arnold Arboretum.

Images of this individual: tag all
Assassin bug (I think), but what species? - Bibio femoratus Assassin bug (I think), but what species? - Bibio femoratus
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Contributed by Matt Simon on 20 May, 2009 - 10:27pm
Last updated 9 June, 2009 - 12:32am

i think this is a female March fly, Bibio femoratus
like this one shown in copula

great photos, by the way -- please take and post more!
and welcome to BugGuide!
… v belov, 21 May, 2009 - 3:48am login or register to post comments

 
I'll be jiggered
A March fly, Bibio femoratus. That's it. Thank you. I'm not terribly good at pinning down individual species, but I must say that is the first time I have ever gotten the entire order wrong. Cheers!
… Matt Simon, 21 May, 2009 - 7:20am login or register to post comments

 
Don't feel bad, I did the same thing....
… Lynette Schimming, 21 May, 2009 - 8:53am login or register to post comments

 
Thanks
Glad to know I'm not the only one fooled by this species. Given the superficial similarity to assassin bugs, some of which can deliver a painful or deadly bite (depending on the size of the other animal), I wonder whether perhaps some Batesian mimicry is going on here. Does this species of March fly benefit from looking like an assassin bug? Do some predators avoid it because of the similarity?
… Matt Simon, 21 May, 2009 - 3:44pm login or register to post comments

 
odd
how the eyes are much larger on one of the two individuals. sexual dimorphism?
… Paratoxodera cornicollis, 21 May, 2009 - 5:09am login or register to post comments

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