Waved Light Fly dispatched unnecessarily
wasp,hornet or bee?
Location: hope mills, north carolina
May 10, 2011 7:52 pm
I was watering my flowers in Hope Mills,North Carolina and this bug flew out and tried to sting me in the face, It was very agressive. I looked in flowers for a nest but none. So I was wondering what kind it is?
Thanks Lisa
Signature: however
Waved Light Fly
Dear Lisa,
It took us a bit, but we finally identified your mystery creature as a Waved Light Fly, Pyrgota undata, after browsing through images posted to BugGuide. This is a new species for our website and it doesn’t fit into any of our existing subcategories of Flies, so we will either archive it generally or create a new subcategory. We wish you had submitted a photo of a living specimen. The impression it gave that it was trying to sting you was a misunderstanding as the Waved Light Fly cannot sting nor does it bite, hence it was killed needlessly. According to BugGuide: “Life history: Female lights on a feeding May beetle, causing it to take flight. Pyrgotid then oviposits into beetle’s back while soft parts are exposed in flight. Flies usually attack female beetles only and may pursue them under lights. Larvae is about 1 cm long, takes about 14 days to kill host beetle and then consumes entire interior. Fly pupates inside host remains and pupates there, emerges following spring.”
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