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Mydas FliesTags
bug loveMating Wasps
Location: Royal Oak, Michigan
July 25, 2011 6:19 pm
Dear Bugman,
Over the past couple of weeks (beginning mid-July) this guy has been seen flying around the yard and never let me approach closely enough for a photo. Until he became preoccupied… It becomes startled easily, but sits for long periods of time on the mulch in my garden, rarely landing on the plants. It’s about 1.5” long. It resembles some of the spider wasps or wood wasps, but I was a little overwhelmed trying to identify it myself. Thanks!
Signature: DaleShannon
Mating Mydas Flies
Hi Dale,
These mating Mydas Flies, Mydas clavatus, are excellent wasp mimics. You may read more about them on bugguide, where it is indicated: “Mating system in this species unknown. Different Mydas species apparently have different mating systems, including resource-defense polygyny and ‘hilltopping’.“ BugGuide does have at least one image of a mating pair.
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Comments 2
Well, they definately had me fooled! I was sure this was a type of spider wasp. The courtship was intense as well – they began chasing each other around, flying in circles and clinging to each other. I thought it was a territorial battle, and sounded like a small scale WWII dog fight! Thanks again.
Posted 28 Jul 2011 at 2:58 pm ¶Thanks so much for your first hand observations of the mating habits, which according to bugguide, are not well documented.
Posted 28 Jul 2011 at 6:16 pm ¶Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.
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