Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Sepsidae Mimic?
Posted by bums on 19-07-2015 19:25
#1
hello,
insect found today, 19-07 , Belgium, at a creek..
it really looks like Sepsidae, but it really isn't...four wings, wasp-like body,long antennas.
But it was sitting here with spread wings just like e Sepsidae...
Why would an insect mimic a Sepsidae? or is it the other way round?
Anyone?
thanks a lot.. Chris
Edited by bums on 19-07-2015 19:27
Posted by bums on 19-07-2015 19:25
#2
2
Posted by bums on 19-07-2015 19:26
#3
3
Posted by Juergen Peters on 21-07-2015 16:33
#4
Hello Chris,
bums wrote:
Why would an insect mimic a Sepsidae?
why should it?
or is it the other way round?
Or it's pure accident? This insect has a rather general wasp like look (doesn't look more than superficially similar to Sepsidae to me). I think it's Braconidae or near.
Edited by Juergen Peters on 21-07-2015 16:34
Posted by John Carr on 21-07-2015 16:36
#5
Ants taste bad and (usually) sting. Sepsidae want to look like ants. Many other insects also want to look like ants. An Alydidae nymph or a black-winged midge in genus
Chasmatonotus looks like an ant crawling on a leaf. They are not trying to mimic Sepsidae.
Posted by Juergen Peters on 21-07-2015 17:21
#6
Hello John,
John Carr wrote:
Ants taste bad and (usually) sting.
hmm..., but by far most ants (the workers) don't have wings, and many ant mimicing insects or spiders also don't have wings (spiders, Nabidae or other true bug larvae) or no obvious wings (some true bug imagines, beetles etc.). Mimicing an ant with wings does not seem to make much sense to me - statistically...
Edited by Juergen Peters on 21-07-2015 17:27
Posted by bums on 21-07-2015 18:59
#7
thank you both :)
Juergen: I was asking myself the same, " why should it" .
What was attracting my attention was the typical Sepsidae-like spreading of the wings...not just for me to take the pictures, but for minutes..just like Sepsidae do...in that sense I found it quite similar, let aside the general appearance...
I noticed quite a few wasp and ant species the last year, but never this typical wing-spreading
and again thanks .. :) Chris