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Photo#59144
'Fool me twice' fly - Microbembex - female

'Fool me twice' fly - Microbembex - Female
Caspers Wilderness Park, Orange County, California, USA
June 21, 2006
There's that bee*wolf again. Nope, it's a yellow jac*ket. Computer says differently - fly. Now, what kind?

Moved
Moved from Bembicinae. I'm really leaning toward this genus, and will leave the image here for now at least. Size is somewhat critical here. Microbembex are not very big.

 
Unfortunately, I don't remember size.
But apparently, at the time I thought it sized like a beewolf, if that's any help. They're small, aren't they? (Just checked, and I have no other images of this specimen. Was hoping for something to show scale.)

Are eyes inordinantly large? They seem so.

Wasp
That one actually is a Bembecine wasp.

 
Make that "three times" and "wasp" then.
Thanks for straightening me out, Herschel. I should stick to shooting and leave the identification to you experts.

 
No problem:-)
It takes a lot of time and practice to recognize the subtle distinctions, so don't 'beat yourself up.' Bembicines are REALLY tough to get to genus from 'mere' images, by the way. I doubt this is in the genus Bembix, but that still leaves too many possibilities!

 
Thanks for the encouragement
If only I could count wings better! Then at least I'd know which were the flies.

 
Moved
to guide page, you can do it yourself next time once it has been IDed.
When the wings are folded it is almost impossible to count them, but there are other charachteristics that are visually more noticeable once you get familiar with them; compare general shape, length of antennae, eye size, shape of legs, all this helps.

 
You are really my benefactor today
I wondered if I should do the moving and will as much as possible from here on out. Noticing more points of difference will be a big help to me. Leg shape, for instance, is something I hadn't often noticed. I do look at head and eyes, but have problems counting wings. (Yeah, I know, it's only up to four.)

How did you get it to Nyssoninae with the info given? Was it simply a matter of dropping back one step from genus to subfamily? (I'm ignorant on terminology.)

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