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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Orthorrhapha » Asiloidea » Robber Flies (Asilidae) » Laphriinae » Bee-like Robber Flies (Laphria) » Laphria saffrana
Photo#52427
Robber Fly #8 - Laphria saffrana - female
Copyright © 2006 Gayle and Jeanell Strickland

Robber Fly #8 - Laphria saffrana - Female
Gloster, Gloster Arboretum, Amite County, Mississippi, USA
May 13, 2006
Size: body length 18.1 mm.
Laphria saffrana? Found along edge of woodland trail by Caroline Bauder.
It appears to be a good mimic of this wasp , which was collected in the same vicinity about 20 minutes later.

Images of this individual: tag all
Robber Fly #8 - Laphria saffrana - female Robber Fly #8 - Laphria saffrana - female Robber Fly #8 - Laphria saffrana - female Robber Fly #8 - Laphria saffrana - female Robber Fly #8 - Laphria saffrana - female
Contributed by Gayle and Jeanell Strickland on 15 May, 2006 - 7:08pm
Last updated 12 February, 2010 - 10:42pm

Your both guesses...
Are probably correct. First, this robber fly is doubtless a Laphriinae, and saffrana means "of a safran yellow color".
Second, this is obviously a mimic of the Vespula squamosa queen - and, interestingly, of the queen only. We had already the Syrphid Spilomyia alcimus, and now this one... who knows? A French dictum says "never two without three".
… Richard Vernier, 16 May, 2006 - 4:24am

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