Africa Wild

Is it moving the wings so fast that we cannot see them?

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:30 am Is it moving the wings so fast that we cannot see them?

Yep, hovering over the flower.

I thought so. A "thing" like that has no sense without wings

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:37 am I thought so. A "thing" like that has no sense without wings

You are right, but mind you, there are actually some flies without wings who live on bats etc.

Just to make everything more complicated

Have checked a more recent source on distribution:

http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/bombcat/worldcat1-new.pdf
World Catalog of Bombyliidae

Here the SA species:

Genus BOMBOMYIA Greathead

acroleucus Bezzi, 1921a: 9. TYPE LOCALITY: South Africa (Western Cape)
DISTRIBUTION: Afrotropical: South Africa (Eastern Cape, Western Cape).

bombiformis Bezzi, 1921a: 9. TYPE LOCALITY: “Rhodesia” [= Zimbabwe]
DISTRIBUTION: Afrotropical: Malawi, South Africa (Mpumalanga), Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

discoidea
DISTRIBUTION: Afrotropical: Botswana, Burundi, Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nambia, Niger,
Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa (Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZuluNatal, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Northern Province, North-West Province, Western Cape), Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia,
Zimbabwe. Palaearctic: Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, China (Xinjiang), Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Gruzia, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lebanon, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Oman,
Russia (SET), Spain, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

fulvonotata
DISTRIBUTION: Afrotropical: Lesotho, South Africa (Eastern Cape, Free State, Northern Cape).

hypoxantha
DISTRIBUTION: Afrotropical: South Africa (Free State, North-West Province).

waterbergensis
DISTRIBUTION: Afrotropical: South Africa (Northern Province).

Nothing near Zululand or even KZN , I am tempted to say we have an undiscribed species

This study on bee-flies in Mkhuze has found only Bombomyia bombiformis and Bombomyia discoidea
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... uth_Africa

Ask an expert is the only way to find out

Bombomyia Africawilda!

Kruger





Also Calliphoridae?

ExFmem wrote: ↑Sat Jun 06, 2020 8:26 pm Kruger

Also Calliphoridae?

Yep, but can't tell a genus

There is nothing to look it up, just post it as Calliphoridae with some wise words on the family

A tiny bit of info. on the different make-up of the males' eyes:

Some predaceous insects (robber flies, mantises) may have larger ommatidia on the top portion of their eyes than underneath (it’s called an “acute zone”), which provides some depth perception. Many dragonflies have two acute zones – one to enhance forward vision and the other for upward vision, and a dark area on the top of a dragonfly’s eye may act as sunglasses or may enhance upward vision. In fly species with gigantic eyes, an acute zone makes him more far-sighted, equipping him to recognize a female of the species before she can even see him!

I don't know if this may help explain the stripe of a different color in the eye or not:
A word about pigment cells. The types of pigments present in the eye determine what colors an insect sees; insects that have two or more different types of pigment cells can see in color, and many can see the same colors that humans can (though reds and oranges are not their strong suit). Some insects, in fact, can distinguish colors that humans cannot.

VERY interesting topic, so will study it more later. I do remember that some butterflies see one another as a totally different color than we humans see them- for example one species we see as white, the butterflies see as bright pink due to their ability to perceive a broader spectrum of light than our eyes are adapted for. Anyway.....