[Syrphidae] Re: syrphid developmental defect? or visual efect?

Fri May 13 10:31:52 BST 2011

Hi Ximo :
  Good close ups but what is the "mystery" about a 'hole' ??  The syrphid is just extending its dark proboiscis and cleaning (?) it with its front legs. 
   When am I going to hear from you in reply by e-mail ?  CHeers.
KUMAR

Dr Kumar Ghorpade, B.Sc.(Agri.), M.Sc., Ph.D. (Entomol.). 
Smithsonian Institution (U.S.A.) Postdoctoral Fellow (1982-1983) researching Oriental Syrphidae, Sciomyzidae and Ephydridae (Diptera). 
Currently: Post-Graduate Teacher & Research Associate in Systematic Entomology, Department of Agricultural Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Krishi Nagar, Dharwar 580 005, Karnataka (INDIA). 
Postal address: P.O. Box 221, K.C. Park Post Office, Dharwar 580 008, INDIA. 

--- On Thu, 12/5/11, ximo mengual sanchis <xmengual at gmail.com> wrote:

From: ximo mengual sanchis <xmengual at gmail.com>
Subject: [Syrphidae] Re: syrphid developmental defect? or visual efect?
To: "Hoverfly discussion list" <syrphidae at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
Date: Thursday, 12 May, 2011, 7:15 PM

Thanks Jean-Pierre,

I also answered something similar to him: "my guess is that is an artifact. When the fly opens the mouth, some muscle behind the integument moves and creates a dark spot in the inner side of the face... and that movement creates the vision of a hole".

I just wante to know if I was right thinking it is an artifact of the pictures, or somebody has seen something similar.

Best regards,

Ximo

2011/5/12 Jean-Pierre SARTHOU <sarthou at ensat.fr>

Dear Ximo,

According to me, there is nothing so odd: this "hole" is simply caused by the wet and dark proboscis, when pulled up into to buccal cavity, it (or more precisely the membrane which links it to the head tegument) touches the face tegument (which is more or less transluscent) inside and leads to this dark patch on the knob. 
I hope that it is nothing more complicated than that!

Best regards,
Jean-Pierre

Le 12/05/2011 03:37, ximo mengual sanchis a écrit : 

Dear friends,

I'm not a big fan of these things but this forum has an interesting gif image (animated picture). My friend Keith sent me the link of a flower fly (Epistrophe eligans) with a weird "visual efect". There appears to be a mobile hole in the fly's face that opens when it moves its proboscis, the gif is mesmerizing and a little grotesque. What do you think caused this?

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1005789

Best regards,

Ximo

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******************************************************** 
Dr. Ximo Mengual 
Department of Entomology
Smithsonian Institution
PO Box 37012, MRC-0169
Rm CE-607
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
Phone: +1 (202) 633-1004
e-mail: mengualj at si.edu
http://entomology.si.edu/StaffPages/MengualJ.html

For FEDEX:
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National Museum of Natural History (NHB)
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