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Species Heterostylum robustum - Bomber Fly

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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 Bombyliinae
Tribe Bombyliini
Genus Heterostylum
Species robustum (Bomber Fly)
Explanation of Names
Heterostylum robustum (Osten-Sacken 1877)
Size
11-12 mm (Osten-Sacken, 1877)
Identification
Range
w. NA (OR-CA to AB-KS-TX + GA) to Mexico; NC (BG data); Bohart (1960) states:
The recorded geographic range of Heterostylum robustumm includes the Pacific and Rocky Mountain States as well as the southern Great Plains, the lower Mississippi Valley, and Florida...
Food
Adults take nectar.
Life Cycle
Parasitoids of hymenoptera, especially Halictid bees. Recorded hosts: Nomia (Halictidae), Ammophila (Sphecidae). Often associated with the alkali bee, Nomia melanderi (Bohart, 1960).
Mating pair:
Print References
Bohart G.E., Stephen W.P., Eppley R.K. (1960) The biology of Heterostylum robustum, a parasite of the Alkali bee. Ann. Ent. Soc. Am. 53: 425-435 (Full text)
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. (https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.57939).