Friday Photo: 30 November

November 30th, 2012 at 8:52 am by Chthoniid

A reminder that summer is on the way. One of the peculiarities of NZ is that a lot of plant pollination is undertaken by native flies. We have relatively few native bee species.

Click for larger, higher res image

Tags: fly, Friday Photo

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9 Responses to “Friday Photo: 30 November”

gravedodger (1,175) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 9:23 am
A rare sight around here now, since varroa wiped out the wild bees we have only bumbles to do the job and pollination is a little haphazzard.
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RRM (7,264) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those – or if I have, I’d probably have assumed it was a German paper wasp.

I saw one of the classic dull amber coloured, hairy abdomen honey bees last week – as gravedodger says it was almost an occasion, we’ve seen nothing but bumble bees in our garden so far this year.

I hope my chooks didn’t kill it…
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David Farrar (1,741) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 9:41 am
Great photo.
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Chthoniid (1,914) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 10:42 am
@gravedodger

Curious, I’d thought I’d seen a rise in these small pollinating flies since the bees took a hit. I agree that the bumble-bees have taken up some of the slack.

@RRM

They are very small- much smaller than a German or paper wasp. One trick to tell them apart from actual wasps is to look at the antenna. Wasps have long, pendular antenna. Flies not only have 2 wings (not 4, sometimes you can see balancers), they also have shorter rigid antenna.
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Elaycee (3,513) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 10:51 am
Chthoniid:

One trick to tell them apart from actual wasps is to look at the antenna.

No thanks. I’ll keep my distance. They look too much like wasps to me and I have no intention of getting close up and personal in an effort to identify their genus via an antenna examination….
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thedavincimode (4,707) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 10:59 am
Spiderman

I was expecting Happy Feet.
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Scott Chris (4,875) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 11:13 am
A B C, I see a bee!
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Viking2 (9,493) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Nice pic. The large pics are great.
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Chthoniid (1,914) Says:
November 30th, 2012 at 1:59 pm
@David Farrar

Thanks- one of the tricks here has been in post-processing. The background has had blur increased.

@Elyacee

It really isn’t that dangerous Most wasps are harmless too- it’s just the invasive Vespid wasps that you need to be wary of.

@thedavincemode

I’m trying- I’ve got some little blue penguin pics but they’re more ‘record’ shots (ie. a record that I’ve seen one) rather than good enough to print or display…

@Scott Chris

Hmm, fly actually Most of our native flies perform very useful ecological functions.

@Viking2

Thanks- I thougt it looked well for a creature that’s about 5-6mm long in real life. It is a challenge getting small targets into focus.
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