#flybuary

a #flybuary #flyday with archytas apicifer, a species my labmate is studying for pollination! while the adult is off visiting flowers, the larvae parasitize several pest caterpillars.
#invertebrates #sciart

digital illustrations of a black and yellow striped hoverfly (eupeodes americanus) and a black and white striped fly with incredibly long legs (bittacomorpha clavipes)

#flybuary day uhhhhhh let's not worry about it
the american hoverfly is a cool north american migratory fly (YEAH FLIES MIGRATE. IT'S COOL) and i'd just like to see an eastern phantom cranefly again. when they fly they hold their legs out and look like giant asterisks lol

sketches of 6 flies clockwise starting from top left: a chubby belpharicerid larva with large circles on its belly, a micropezid fly waving its front legs around, a psychodid drain fly, 3 spindly thryptomyia hanging from a spider web, a chaoborid larva, and a pyrgotid fly

#flybuary days 6-11 assortment

traditional sketch of a fly with very long limbs and shrivelled wings

#flybuary day 5! this is not a copepod, it's pontomyia natans! one of the very few insects that lives in the ocean, this chironomid spends its few hours as an adult rapidly paddling around the water surface with their twisted wings to find a larviform female.
#invertebrates #sciart

digital illustration of a long, hairy, yellowish-green fly with orange and black legs and white tuft on the end of its abdomen. below is a white egg sack with tiny white larvae emerging saying "しお!"

#flybuary day 4! promachus yesonicus is called シオヤアブ (shioyaabu, salt peddler "horsefly") in japanese because of the male's white tail. promachus are huge robber flies and are one of the few genera of asilids that lay frothy white egg masses. buy his salt or else.
#invertebrates #sciart

traditional doodle of a very fuzzy yellow fly with large red eyes and a long proboscis

#flybuary day 3! the aster bee fly is native to most of north america. like other bee flies, the larvae are parasitoids of other insects, potentially june beetles.
#invertebrates #sciart

digital illustration of an iridescent green fly with long antennae and orange feet. a fat slug-like larva in the corner crawls towards ant pupae.

#flybuary day 2! microdon lugens, a weird hoverfly from the southeastern united states. the slug-like larvae living deep in ant nests waggle their heads around to find their way towards ant larvae/pupae snacks. adults don't seem to visit flowers as much as other syrphids.
#invertebrates #sciart

traditional marker drawing of an orange and black cranefly

the clem lab declares this month #flybuary starting with the tiger cranefly nephrotoma lugens!! nephrotoma can be found on all continents but is most diverse in the holoarctic, asia, and the afrotropics. larvae in the soil can sometimes damage plants.
#invertebrates #sciart