[NatureNS] Wasp mimic or is it?

Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 20:36:04 -0300
From: Stephen Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca>
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Angus, Jean, others,
Very nice pictures Angus, but when the mimic is very good how do you 
know which
is the mimic and which the model?  As devil's advocate on this, it 
doesn't look
like the usual syrphid fly mimics I've seen here (going by the antennae) so
presumably it would have to be a stratiomyid (Stratiomyidae, soldier 
flies, the
other group with many wasp mimics): this does fit with the club-like antennae,
but which also perhaps could be hymenopteran, of a mud-dauber maybe.  To me,
the extreme waist and extremely pointy back end look more wasp-like, features
that strats don't usually copy well (less of a waist and a rounded abdominal
tip).  There's enough motion blur due to take-off that you can't see how many
wings there are (looks like there could be two pairs but impossible to be
sure), and likewise can't see whether there are halteres or not.  So from the
one picture alone, to me it could be either a wasp or or a mimetic fly.  Did
you get a good look at it while it was stationary to resolve this, or did you
get other pictures that you could put up?

The other one on the flower appears to a biggish tachinid, also a great 
picture.
Steve
Choc Lake, Halifax.
*****************************


Quoting Angus MacLean <angusmcl@ns.sympatico.ca>:
> Usually the secret to good photos is recognizing the moment & 
> reacting to it. Other times luck plays a big role. Such was the case 
> with these two pics.
>
> This one catches the subject ready to lift off. One can almost feel 
> the tension as it gets ready. (If your monitor is capable, click the 
> "original size").
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=238045972&size=m
>
> This one is in the same vein but has an aesthetic quality to it. 
> (Again click "original" for a larger pic).
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=238045953&size=m
>
> Angus
>
>

-- 
Stephen R. Shaw Ph.D.
Dept of Psychology & Neuroscience
Dalhousie University
1355 Oxford Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4J1
e-mail: srshaw@dal.ca
phone: 1-902-494-2047
fax: 1-902-494-6585

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