Subject: Bug ID
Geographic location of the bug: in the hills around Fuzhou, Fujian, [SE] China,
August 28, 2017 6:44 AM
found at about 800m alt. in the hills around Fuzhou, Fujian, [SE] China, 28/08/2017.
I guess that the orange one is an immature form of a solitary wasp but the other one is beyond my guessability.
How you want your letter signed: Eric Smithson
Dear Eric,
The insect beyond your “guessability” is a Weevil, but your orange insect is the one that really interests us. It is not an immature solitary wasp. We wish the mouthparts were more evident in your image. The antennae resemble those of a Fly in the order Diptera, and that is our best guess. We haven’t time to research this right now, so we are posting it as unidentified and we are putting it out as a challenge to our readership to help us determine its identity.
Hi Daniel, thanks for your unexpectedly prompt reply. These things may be commonplace to you and your team but we find something new to us every time we go for a hike. The diversity of life on this planet is mind blowing and beautiful. Unfortunately I don`t have a better picture to show you but it looks to me like this might be an ? exuvia with the next stage emerging from underneath… but I really know nothing; just happy to keep discovering.
Thanks again.
Hi Again Eric,
Cesar Crash of Insetologia suspects this is a Thick Headed Fly in the family Conopidae. We will do more research.
Definitely a fly, we can see the haltere 🙂 First pair seems to be not extended. Mouthparts are visible, it seems to have a long beak that resemble Conopidae.
Thanks Cesar. We will link to the Thick Headed Flies page on BugGuide and search for additional relevant links.
I tried superfamily Conopoidea, wich could give us other families, but did not find other family. Now that you link BugGuide, I see it on Sciomyzoidea, but I see that no other family, at least in BugGuide’s range has this kind of mouth parts. I dunno if you saw it, but it’s between the middle legs, no way it’s one leg, because we see all six.
It does look like an especially long proboscis. Thanks for pointing that out Cesar. We didn’t expect to find it sheathed against the body that way.
Now check this out:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/270450887_fig1_FIGURE-1-A-Physocephala-tibialis-Lateral-view-with-ptilinum-PT-inflated-B
It talks about Conopidae eclosion (maybe the reasion of coloration and folded wings) and the inflation of a so called “ptilinum” in the face, with illustrations.
Now check this out:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/270450887_fig1_FIGURE-1-A-Physocephala-tibialis-Lateral-view-with-ptilinum-PT-inflated-B
It talks about Conopidae eclosion (maybe the reasion of coloration and folded wings) and the inflation of a so called “ptilinum” in the face, with illustrations.