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Bee-fly
Comptosia magna - WA's largest fly. This fly flew in and landed in the shade. Fred wanted to shift it into the sun and put his hand down to herd it, but instead the fly climbed onto his hand. We took photos, then we transferred it to Jean's hand for another photo-shoot.We left it in the shade to enjoy its life in the forest! Most likely it was a freshly emerged fly. We have seen these at 50mm wingtip to wingtip.Photo: FredBee-flies are a flower fly and live on pollen and nectar. They do not bite humans.Photos of one collecting sand and laying eggs
here
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Found on the ground near one of the pupal cases."All known pupae of Comptosia species have the following characteristics: 3 or 4 pairs of prominent, well sclerotised, tubercles on the head capsule, the cephalic and facial tubercles . In addition, there is a single median ventral projection, the posterior facial tubercle. A pair of hairs arise posterior to each anterior cephalic tubercle and a single hair arises just lateral to the base of each anterior facial tubercle. Another pair of hairs is situated on the posterior margin of the head capsule directly posterior to the anterior facial tubercles" David Yeates
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Comptosia magnaIt was good to see one of these very large beeflies gathering sand and laying eggs against a tree. We had seen these flies flying around a fallen tree two years ago but not close enough to photograph.About 50mm wingtip to wingtip.
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Hodgson Vale, Queensland, Australia
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Hodgson Vale, Queensland, Australia
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Cross Plains, Wisconsin, United States
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Durham, North Carolina, United States
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Jimena, Andalucia, Spain.
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Jimena, Andalucia, Spain.
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Jimena, Andalucia Spain
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Feeding on Verticordia
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Male, top side and face views.Photo compiled from a stack of photos taken using a Canon 7D and Canon 100mm macro lens controlled by DSLR Remote Pro for Mac and combined using Helicon Focus on an iMac.
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Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia
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I only managed this shot. Fred caught some feeding on the wing. It was almost as if they were teasing me. They would hang in the air until I got within a certain distance and then buzz off to the other side of their area. These flies were so much fun. They were buzzing very loudly and hovering in small circular locations. If anything, including me, entered their area, they buzzed over to check it out. Other flies were soundly beaten and sent off to find their own area with a series of buzzing and tumbling in the air. While hovering, they seem to hang in the air, wings moving so slowly (or fast enough - I haven't worked that bit out) to see the wings as I have photographed it. It looks as if they have two pair of wings (instead of one pair) which flap one up and one down back legs stretched out the back like a rudder. They can change direction, and disappear in a fraction of a second. I wonder how fast they really fly? An excellent description of these flies has been made by
William Archer from Esperance West Australia. He describes these flies as belonging to the same family as March and Horse flies, being different by feeding on flowers instead of blood. He also mentions that they also occur in South Africa which suggests a Gondwana origin.Check out
Michael's ,
Beth's and
Ron's photos of these flies.
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Dalcouth, Queensland, Australia
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Male, top side and face views.Photo compiled from a stack of photos taken using a Canon 7D and Canon 100mm macro lens controlled by DSLR Remote Pro for Mac and combined using Helicon Focus on an iMac.
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Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia
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Male, top side and face views.Photo compiled from a stack of photos taken using a Canon 7D and Canon 100mm macro lens controlled by DSLR Remote Pro for Mac and combined using Helicon Focus on an iMac.
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Camin, Veneto, Italy