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Subgenus Bombylius (Bombylius Subgenus Bombylius)
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Bombylius validus
Photo#1100247
Copyright © 2015
Mark Swanson
Bee Fly -
Bombylius validus
Cook County, Illinois, USA
July 11, 2015
Images of this individual:
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Contributed by
Mark Swanson
on 11 July, 2015 - 11:40pm
Last updated 12 July, 2015 - 10:22pm
Moved
Very interesting. Based on the wing pattern (hind margin smoky), structure, and colour pattern, I suspect this is the rare
B. validus
.
Moved from
Bee Flies
.
…
Joel Kits
, 12 July, 2015 - 7:44pm
Curious...
I have no expertise in Bee Flies, but I wonder if these photos alone are sufficient to call this
B. validus.
For example, the single photo in the Alberta reference (
http://www.entomology.ualberta.ca/searching_species_details.php?s=5946
) shows a different wing coloration ("Anterior third of wing translucent with faded orange-brown tint, posterior colorless and transparent"). My fly has more of a dark brown tint, not orange brown, and the posterior isn't exactly transparent. Also, I saw my fly in an oak savanna habitat, which I don't think of as an "arid region." Thoughts?
…
Mark Swanson
, 12 July, 2015 - 8:42pm
B. validus
The Alberta specimen is actually
B. mexicanus
. Many specimens of the latter in collections are misidentified as
validus
. I don't know where they got the information on the species occurring in arid regions, the distribution is the northeast/upper midwest, none of which is particularly arid. Oak savanna tends to be a pretty good habitat for bombyliids, it often occurs on sandy soils which support a diversity of species.
…
Joel Kits
, 12 July, 2015 - 9:23pm
Well that's frustrating...
Flawed expert sources don't make our lives easy. Can you point me to a another source with better description, distribution, status information? The only site I have found is this:
http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/570d54da6d1e6f05c71390eba36008aa
. It says "Minnesota to Michigan, s. to Illinois & Virginia," which is consistent with your description. But it has no info on status/scarcity.
Are the photos on the UBC site valid? (
http://www.biodiversity.ubc.ca/entomology_pictures/Diptera/Bombyliidae/
). They do look much closer to my fly.
Looks like Harvard has some old specimens...
http://mczbase.mcz.harvard.edu/name/Bombylius%20validus
. I wonder if those are Loew's originals.
…
Mark Swanson
, 12 July, 2015 - 10:05pm
B. validus
The UBC ones are misidentified
B. mexicanus
as well. In the ventral view you can see the coxae have yellow hair -
B. validus
should have black hair there (although some
mexicanus
have black as well). The Harvard photos are of the lectotype, and there are photos of a correctly identified specimen
here
. Other than that there probably isn't much on the web. There is a description in Hall and Evenhuis' revision of the genus (Flies of the Nearctic Region vol. 13 no. 1) but no additional information on its status.
…
Joel Kits
, 12 July, 2015 - 11:02pm
Thanks for the info.
The reason I'm curious about its status is so I can report back to the stewards of the park where I saw the fly. Presumably it isn't a listed (threatened or endangered) species, but they would probably appreciate more info. Maybe "rare" will suffice.
…
Mark Swanson
, 12 July, 2015 - 11:21pm