Lake Bug
Location: Upstate New York
September 5, 2010 12:09 am
Dear Bugman….found this interesting beast on an adirondack chair at a lake in upstate NY. What the bug is it?
Thanks!
Signature: Ken
Maybe Virginia Bee Killer
Hi Ken,
This is a Bee-Like Robber Fly in the genus Laphria, possibly the Virginia Bee Killer, Laphria virginica. There are many similar looking members of the genus. You can compare your individual to the Virginia Bee Killer photos posted to BugGuide. According to the data page on BugGuide, most sightings occur in June, and they are rare in August and BugGuide reports no September sightings, however sightings for the entire genus reported on BugGuide do include September sightings.
Toxomerus marginatus
Location: Hawthorne, California
September 4, 2010 3:42 pm
Hi Bugman,
I think I have this fly properly identified. Can you confirm it as being a Syrphid fly – Toxomerus marginatus?
Signature: Thanks, Anna
Common Oblique Syrphid
Hi Anna,
This is a Syrphid Fly in the family Syrphidae, also known as a Flower Fly or Hover Fly, but we do not believe it is Toxomerus marginatus. We applaud you for attempting to self identify your Flower Fly, and the reason your letter caught our attention is that you used a scientific name in the subject line of your email, and it was a name we did not recognize. We do believe you have correctly identified the subfamily Syrphinae which is the same subfamily that includes the Common Oblique Syrphid Fly, Allograpta obliqua, which we believe looks like a closer match to the markings on your individual. If you compare images of Toxomerus marginatus on BugGuide with images of Allograpta obliqua on BugGuide, we think you will agree with our correction. This image on BugGuide shows the markings quite clearly. Syrphidae is a large and confusing family with many members that look remarkably alike, so we want to say again that we commend your efforts at self identification because we know how much time it can take to sort through the countless images posted to BugGuide.
P.S. In formatting the images for this posting, we realized that you have submitted other Syrphid Flies to us in the past, including a Eristalinus taeniops in January and a possible Copestylum marginatum in June. Your photos are excellent, so please keep sending us images of Syrphid Flies or other bugs that you might find that would interest our readers.
Common Oblique Syrphid Fly
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for helping me with this. Maybe one day I will get one correct! Also, many thanks for the compliments and encouragement.
Anna
decade old nightmare. Maggots that ate live kittens/bunnies?
September 2, 2010 1:57 am
Dear Man of Bugs,
First and foremost I apologize I have no photos, but this horrific season took place a good ten years ago, and photographic evidence would only serve to scar you the way I am now irrevocably scarred.
When I was younger, I lived in Kentucky. We had a rabbit farm. Come warm weather, all the rabbits had their precious babies and the barn cats had kittens. One day I went to look at these precious darling bunnies, these tiny miracles, and when I pulled back the fur in the nesting box… they were basically mutilated. I very clearly remember the writhing maggots (white) and the lesions on LIVING creatures. I found the same waking nightmare on the barn kittens. The common link was all the animals were too yong to be mobile, and seemed to have pus in their eyes/diarrhea, and seemed thin. I do not know if this is because the gates of hell unleashed meat eating maggots on them, or they got these parasites because they were ill. I am still very traumatized by this, partly because nobody here up north believes me or can relate. I spent the rest of that summer guarding my dog’s litter of puppies, keeping them dry, warm, clean, and healthy. I truly believe my anxiety disorder started w
ith these unspeakable terrors. I learned, Bug Man, that something that looks as harmless as a grain of rice can devour your flesh, and really quickly. Life suddenly wasn’t so carefree anymore. Kittens can literally be stripped of their hides and life doesn’t care. Chilling, for a twelve year old.
I know I wasn’t delusional (well, at least back then.) Did I manage to fall through a rip in time and space and I was actually IN hell, or do these things writhe the earth?
Thanks very much for your time.
Susan
Dear Susan,
Without a photograph, our response is purely speculative. There is a family of Flies known as Bot Flies whose larvae are endoparasites on mammals, but your encounter was probably with the Maggots of Blow Flies. Here is a National Geographic story on the benefits of treating wounds with maggots. As your letter indicates, sickly newborn creatures might be infested with maggots and not survive the encounter.
Louse fly
September 1, 2010 11:13 pm
my wife brought home a dead bird (here in the Catskill Mtns of NY). While examining it, a flat fly -which had a habit of running through the birds plumage- landed on me and went down my shirt. It appears to have bitten me as well on my back.
Q:do I need to worry about transmission of disease w/this species of fly?
Signature: alex mallon
Louse Fly
Dear Alex,
This is a great question and we need to research it, but we can tell you that Flies are probably the group of insects most likely to transmit a disease to a human. The number of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and flies is extensive. With that said, we have not heard of a Louse Fly transmitting a disease to humans. We have taken the liberty of posting an old photo of a Louse Fly sent to us from England to accompany your question.
Flying Insect
Taylor, MI (southeast MI)
August 31, 2010 10:40 pm
This is probably a pretty boring insect, but what in the world is this. They were hanging out by the hundreds on a window of a friend of mine?
cgp
Midges
Hi cgp,
We are not going to try to pretend we know more than what our limited understanding includes when it comes to insect identification. These are members of the order Diptera which includes flies and mosquitoes. They are some small gnats or midges, but we have no idea what family much less genus or species. That would take a true expert in the area, known as a dipterist. We can tell you that this is a pair, and the individual with the arrow pointing at him is the male. Many male flies have highly developed antennae which are sensory organs, presumably to help them locate females. Hopefully one of our readers will be able to provide a more specific identification. We just noticed your email contained a second contact with additional information.
Apparently this is a chiromid midge.
– cgp
Dear cgp,
Thanks for providing us with a followup that supports our original vague identification. We are linking to the BugGuide information page on the Chironomid Midges in the family Chironomidae.
Large Wasp/Hornet type insect
Location: South Coast U.K
September 1, 2010 7:49 am
Hello, im from England on the south coast.
Wasps are a common sight and i have occasionally seen large ones of approximately an inch or so. This was one of the biggest i have ever seen at just over an inch long, also it is very unusual looking with a red/brown and black striped pattern Large Red eyes and a bright yellow stripe down its head. The attached image is the best i could get before it flew away. Really would love to know what it is as i have looked around and it doesnt appear to be a native species.
Thanks.
Richard
Hornet Hover Fly
Hi Richard,
This is not a wasp, but rather, a fly that mimics a stinging insect for protection. It is a Hover Fly in the family Syrphidae, a group also known as Flower Flies, and owing to its large size and the location of the sighting, we thought it might be Volucella inanis, a species with no specific common name other than the generic Hover Fly. We found an image similar to your photo posted to a website devoted to UK Insects but there is a note that a related species, Volucella zonaria is even larger. Wikipedia has a page devoted to Volucella zonaria which is known as the Hornet Hover Fly, and there are photos on the BioImages Virtual Field-Guide UK website that match your specimen nicely. UK Safari also has a nice photograph of the Hornet Hover Fly which is called the Belted Hoverfly.
Hi.
Thank you so much for your fast reply. Very interesting!
I am of course familiar with hoverflys, very common, but i’ve honestly never (knowingly!) seen one anywhere near that size before!
Thanks again.
Unknown fly
Location: Philadlephia, PA
August 30, 2010 4:19 pm
I’ve had a bunch of these flies in my yard for the past couple of years. I’ve tried to find out what kind of fly this is on my own with out any luck. In fact, trying to I.D. this fly on my own is part of what led me to your site.
Sadly, my camera gave me a hard time with focusing on this fly, so I was only able to get this one picture before it became annoyed with me and flew off. I was hoping that you’d be able to help me I.D. it.
Dave
Picture Winged Fly
Hi Dave,
This is a Picture Winged Fly in the family Ulidiidae. The species Delphinia picta does not have a common name. According to BugGuide , it: “Breeds in decaying organic matter, such as compost.”
Hornet fly?
Location: Athens, GA
August 29, 2010 5:16 pm
This poor fellow flew into our rain barrel and I searched online to find anything like it, but had no luck. I feel like it’s some sort of fly, but neither the deer flies, horse flies, snipe flies or syrphid flies here looked like it. What the heck is this thing?
It’s about 1.5-2inches long.
Heather
Drowned Red Footed Cannibalfly
Hi Heather,
Now that we have looked at the full sized file of your Robber Fly, we have realized it is our featured Bug of the Month, the Red Footed Cannibalfly.
Immediately after hitting ‘send’ on my email, I noticed that too! I rushed outside to scoop the poor thing out of the water (since anything that eats wasps is a good bug in my book), but it didn’t move. I then remembered something I read online earlier this week about how pouring salt on a seemingly drowned fly will sometimes suck the water out of it and revive it. I quickly grabbed the salt shaker and covered it in salt, then shook it around in a dish. After about 15 minutes, it crawled right out of the pile of salt and staggered away!
Thanks for featuring it on your highly informative site, otherwise I would have never known it was savable.
Heather Lickliter
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