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I took as series of photos of a pair of tephritids mating on a knapweed flower, Terellia colon I think, a knapweed specialist, but confirmation would be welcome, and then the female went through a series of weird ovipositor flexing movements afterwards. Shows just how long and flexible this dagger like implement is! I hoped she would go onto lay eggs, but she flew off. Too much attention from me maybe..

26.6.11 8mm Wiltshire grassland on Centauria scabiosa

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Ovipositor pic 1

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Ovipoistor flexed pic 2.

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GREAT PHOTOS, Nick!! What an ovopositor! Seems to me some Terellia..

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Thanks Jorge. I think it's T. colon as I sent a pic of a very similar fly on the same plant in the same place a couple of years ago to a UK expert and he said it was this, but I never saw it do this trick before! Really showing off!

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Hi Nick,

Amazing photo´s!!
The species is Terellia colon.
Is it the same female specimen which is copulating in the first picture?For have seen similar behaviour in Ulidiids in teh Neotropics and to me it seemed like they were kind of streching before starting to oviposit. The too oviposit inside plant tissue, in their case Bamboo. Perhaps they need to check whether all works well before depositing their eggs??

John

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Hi John, many thanks for your species confirmation. Yes, it was the same individual which I watched, took photos of for a long time mating, then doing this stretching, then - I think - testing this flower bud for possible egg-laying potential, before flying off. At one point a drop of fluid emerged from the tip after this testing.