#flybuary

[musiclovingmoth]

more flybuary catchup...

eupeodes americanus (syrphidae), the american hoverfly, was recently discovered to undertake super long migrations across north america!

bittacomorpha clavipes (ptychopteridae), the eastern phantom cranefly, lives near streams where the larvae are little worms with long breathing tubes under water. the adults fly super distinctly with their legs extended and they look like flying asterisks.

archytas apicifer (tachinidae), the hornworm tachinid, is an important pollinating fly. despite its name, the larvae seem to parasitize several pest caterpillars but ironically i couldn't find any hornworms among the list.

[musiclovingmoth]

flybuary day 3! the aster bee fly is native to most of north america. i learned that we do not know a whole lot about them. like other bee flies, their larvae are parasitoids, potentially on june beetles.

[musiclovingmoth]

made up flybuary where i draw a fly every day of february. this is a tiger cranefly (nephrotoma lugens) which is found in eastern north america. nephrotoma is distributed worldwide but has the most diversity in the holarctic and the afrotropics. the larvae, like many other craneflies, live in the soil where they may cause damage to plants.

[musiclovingmoth]

flybuary day 2!

microdon lugens is a weird member of the syrphids, or hover/flower flies. adults are usually bee/wasp mimics and frequently visit around flowers, but microdon adults don't seem to visit flowers as often. the larvae were once mistaken for slugs and live deep inside ant nests where they wiggle around searching for ant larvae and pupae to snack on.

[musiclovingmoth]

flybuary day 4! promachus yesonicus is known as shioyaabu (salt peddler "horsefly," it's not actually a horsefly) in japanese because of the white tuft of hair at the end of the male abdomen. promachus are giant ferocious robber flies and are one of the few genera of asilids that lay foamy white egg masses sort of like a mantis.

BUY HIS SALT OR ELSE

[musiclovingmoth]

hough.... flybuary days 6-11 catchup assortment go