Bee fly ovipositing (NOT)--collecting sand!

Patrick Coin

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These bee flies (Villa species) have been active in my yard for the last couple of weeks, but they won't normally hold still for a shot. Cool weather allowed me to approach some as they stuck their abdomens in the ground. I thought this was oviposition, however, I see this comment by bee-fly expert Andy Calderwood on BugGuide describing a sand-collecting behavior in this genus. The sand is used to add weight to the eggs so that they can be tossed! Seems to be the behavior here--it was rather plowing through the soil. (All of this family are parasitoids, this genus said to attack moth caterpillars.) Comments on identification.This is a Villa, compare wing venation to a this image on BugGuide. Some Exoprosopa species are similar, but the wing venation is quite different, see, for example this image; also, compare Manual of Nearctic Diptera volume 1, fig. 45.45 (link).

Patrick Coin commented on "Bee fly ovipositing (NOT)--collecting sand!":

Looks to be similar behavior in this genus on these images here: http://eol.org/data_objects/18626401 http://eol.org/data_objects/1999258 http://eol.org/data_objects/18678883 The fly expert on BugGuide stated that actual oviposition is done from the air with tossing motions of the abdomen. Andy also said that the behavior is found in other genera of "higher" Bombyliidae.

10 months ago • edited: 10 months ago
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Cyndy Parr commented on "Bee fly ovipositing (NOT)--collecting sand!":

@Patrick Coin: Very interesting behavior! Wonder if there are any other reports of it on EOL.

10 months ago
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Patrick Coin commented on an older version of Bee fly ovipositing:

Note details on this behavior (updated in Flickr caption 6/30/12). This is likely a sand-gathering behavior, not actually oviposition. The sand grains are thought to add weight to clusters of eggs during oviposition, which is more of a "tossing" process. See expert commentary at: http://bugguide.net/node/view/75824

11 months ago • edited: 11 months ago
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Patrick Coin marked "Bee fly ovipositing" as trusted on the "Villa" page.

11 months ago
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Patrick Coin commented on an older version of Bee fly ovipositing:

See details in caption.

11 months ago
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