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Photo#101980
Fly - Empis

Fly - Empis
Fairfield, Wayne County, Illinois, USA
April 3, 2007
Nectaring on Pussytoes (Antennaria species). Reminds me of a dance fly but seems more compact.

Images of this individual: tag all
Fly - Empis Fly - Empis

Moved
Moved from Dance Flies.

Moved
Moved from Flies.

Moved
Moved from Empis.

 
Empis
No, I'm sure Empis is correct for this guy. You can see the forked R vein.

Antennaria is another dioecious plant
as Hartmut would point out. This plant with anthers and pollen is male.

 
Hmmm
I hope he does, because I really struggled trying to ID the plant as well as the fly. :) Thanks.

 
Not much detail on the entire plant,
but the stem seems short and the leaves look small, so we would guess Antennaria neglecta, but that's just a guess. A view of the entire plant with leaf details would be needed to separate it from A. plantaginifolia.

 
Comments on Botany...
Just left a comment on a different contribution by Scott showing a fly nectaring at a male pussytoes blossom. The fly here clearly has proboscis extended as if drawing nectar from the flower - again a male flower. Could it be that male pussytoes provide nectar??? Or that they fool pollinators into thinking they have nectar? Or perhaps the fly succeeded in getting nectar from similar looking female flowers, so it's trying its luck here, and will soon give up and go away?

Pussytoes are very hard to key out, but your discussion occurred in 2007. I believe the Flora of North America keys (available online) have been updated since then, and they are quite helpful.

pretty stout bodied for an em
pretty stout bodied for an empidid, but I think you might be correct... possibly in Empis, judging by the elongate mouthparts

 
I'd like to recind this comme
I'd like to rescind this comment... I believe this is in the genus Apolysis in Bombyliidae... there's an excellent picture in Marshall's book that seems to match this specimen perfectly... would be a new genus for the guide in the Subfaimly Phthiriinae

 
I'll
let you experts wrinkle it out. Thanks for the efforts!

 
Please make sure to remove th
Please make sure to remove this from Empis... lest we confuse future buguiders

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