Thread subject: Diptera.info :: odd growth on face = sticky substance

Posted by Colobo on 11-09-2017 10:06
#11

Difficult tu tell from the pictures but this remember something I observed some years ago on several Calliphoridae in sorting malaise trap samples. It was pollinic sacs of an orchid stuck to the face and antenna of the flies, in a somewhat different way in each specimen. The pollinic sacs were sticken to the fly face by a kind of short stem. It was obviously resulting of a mecanism of the stamens allowing to use the flies visiting the flowers for carrying the pollinic sacs and ensure distant pollination. Interestingly only calliphorids of genus Onesia had such pollinic sacs sticken on face.