Thread subject: Diptera.info :: tiny Sarcophagids in love

Posted by Sundew on 23-06-2008 21:44
#1

Hi,
Today I spent some hours on a sunny patch of sand in a Berlin pine wood where lots of Hymenoptera of all sizes dug their holes. But not all busy animals were bees and wasps. I saw several tiny Sarcophagids (not Tachinids as I first thought), about 3-4 mm long, that seemed to be very interested in the activities of the other insects. Now and then a couple found together and played a pre-mating ceremony: a peculiar flight one close above the other, and on the ground a kind of abdomen massage by the male for the wing-whirring female. The white face of the male shone like silver in the sun.
I would really like to get a name for the small critters!
Many thanks, Sundew

This is the female:

Edited by Sundew on 23-06-2008 23:28