Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Paracosmus edwardsii

Bee Fly - Paracosmus edwardsii Paracosmus edwardsii Bee Fly - Paracosmus edwardsii - female Bee Fly - Paracosmus edwardsii - female Bee Fly - Paracosmus edwardsii - male Asilidae? - Paracosmus edwardsii Very Small Bonny Doon Bee Fly - Paracosmus edwardsii Very Small Bonny Doon Bee Fly - Paracosmus edwardsii
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Orthorrhapha)
Superfamily Asiloidea
Family Bombyliidae (Bee Flies)
Subfamily Tomomyzinae
Genus Paracosmus
Species edwardsii (Paracosmus edwardsii)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Allocotus edwardsii Loew 1872
Paracosmus edwardsii [Replacement name given in Osten Sacken(1887)]
Explanation of Names
Loew's genus name Allocotus was found to be pre-occupied, so Osten Sacken coined the new genus name Paracosmus...which he remarked is Greek for "disorderly" (para- Gr. beside, beyond, near; Cosm- Gr. order, the world, universe(1)). It's not clear what Osten Sacken found 'disorderly' about this genus...though P. edwardsii can have an erratic flight behavior.
The epithet edwardsii was an honorific given by Loew in recognition of the collector of the type material: the illustrious "H. Edwards".
Identification
See key on Paracosmus info page.
Range
CA-UT(2)
Print References
Hall, J. C. (1957) Notes and descriptions of new California Bombyliidae (Diptera). Pan-Pac. Entomologist 33: 141–48. (Full Text)
Melander A.L. (1950) Taxonomic notes on some smaller Bombyliidae (Diptera). Pan-Pacific Entomologist 26: 139-156. (Full Text) [Note: See pp. 153-155 for the portion of the paper relating to Paracosmus]
Osten-Sacken, C. R. (1877). Western Diptera: descriptions of new genera and species of Diptera from the region west of the Mississippi, and especially from California. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv. of the Territories 3: 189–354 (Full Text)
Internet References