[NatureNS] flies with refective eyespots on wings

Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 02:40:52 -0300
From: Stephen Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca>
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Flies again.  This is a longshot for this list, but does anyone remember seeing
or hearing of any species of fly which has refective patches on the wings? Many
species have dark patches or stripes but that's not it, I mean reflective, like
some of the scales on some lepidopteran wings.
The elegant dolochopodid sea-cliff fly mentioned earlier, identified now as
Liancalus genualis, is still present as of 3 October on the cliffs west of
Hall's Harbour.  The male has small reflective "eyespots" on the wing tips that
are thought to be used in sex signalling by "flashing" females.  I'm interested
if any other flies have anything similarly reflective, and also if anyone has
looked into the mechanism of reflectivity.  Flies don't have wing scales, only
bristles as far as I know, so it's not clear how they could do it, yet they do.
Has anyone encountered any info on this? -- please let me know if you have
anything.
Steve
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