{"id":945,"date":"2016-08-09T15:17:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T20:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=945"},"modified":"2024-08-26T15:42:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T20:42:14","slug":"tricks-of-the-trade-thick-headed-flies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/tricks-of-the-trade-thick-headed-flies\/","title":{"rendered":"Tricks of the Trade &#8211; Thick-headed Flies (Family Conopidae)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Greetings, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This BOTW started out to be about one thing\u2014preconceived notions, wherein the BugLady thinks she knows what insect she\u2019s approaching, only it isn\u2019t\u2014and it turned out to be about something way more exciting\u2014thick-headed flies and \u201cadaptive manipulation.\u201d Eventually. Put your feet up\u2014this tale takes some telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Thick-headed Fly<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>When wild geraniums are in bloom, they\u2019re visited by early pollinators like mining bees, and the BugLady takes lots of shots of the pollen-covered bees cozying up to wild geranium stamens. (OK, the BugLady can\u2019t resist sharing this <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pollen#\/media\/File:Misc_pollen_colorized.jpg\">surreal picture of pollen<\/a>. When the BugLady spotted yet another occupied flower, she almost didn\u2019t walk over to check it. Surprise! This was not just another mining bee, it was a Thick-headed fly in the genus <em>Myopa<\/em>. Imagine seeing this beauty on the other side of your lens!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"aligncenter uwm-c-img--center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-myopa16-b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-myopa16-b.jpg\" alt=\"thck-hdd-fly-myopa16-b\" class=\"wp-image-947\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-myopa16-b.jpg 700w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-myopa16-b-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thick-headed flies were mentioned briefly in a \u201cBugs without Bios\u201d episode five years ago. They are in the small family Conopidae (which means cone-faced) and they come in a variety of forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>long-skinny-leggy (<a href=\"http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/1226272\/bgpage\">http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/1226272\/bgpage<\/a>),<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>chunky-housefly-ish (<a href=\"http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/1144515\/bgpage\">http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/1144515\/bgpage<\/a>), and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>waspy (<a href=\"http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/206927\/bgpage\">http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/206927\/bgpage<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The BugLady was amazed at the number of photo sites devoted to these flies\u2014a whole bunch of people are finding, admiring, and photographing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This particular thick-headed fly looks like it\u2019s part of what\u2019s called the <em>Myopa curticornis<\/em> species complex\u2014that is, as <a href=\"http:\/\/bugguide.net\/\">bugguide.net<\/a> tells us, \u201ca group of 4 species (<em>M. curticornis<\/em>, <em>M. clausa<\/em>, <em>M. perplexa<\/em> and <em>M. rubida<\/em>) separated by characters that can grade into one another, sometimes making a species ID difficult or unfeasible.\u201d <em>Myopa clausa<\/em> occurs from Coast to Coast, but it\u2019s the only one of the four species that occurs east of the Rockies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Adults nectar on flowers, but Ms. <em>Myopa<\/em> has an ulterior motive for being there\u2014she\u2019s looking for hosts for her offspring. Thick-headed fly larvae are parasitoids of ants, bees, wasps, grasshoppers, crickets, and a few other groups. <em>Myopa<\/em> targets honey bees, sweat bees, and <a href=\"http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/579318\/bgimage\">Anthophora bees<\/a>, and it has a unique egg delivery system. Think &#8220;heat-seeking missile,\u201d but without the heat. When she spies a potential host, she flies up, intercepts the incoming bee in flight, grabs it, and inserts a single egg between two of its abdominal segments (alternatively, the two fall to the ground and she does the deed there). According to <em>The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders<\/em>, \u201cVictims of thick-headed flies offer little resistance to being caught. They are held captive during the short flight while the egg is being attached.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick Parasitoid Review<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s an old saying, \u201cA good parasite doesn\u2019t kill its host.\u201d A good parasitoid, however, does. Slowly. Keeping it alive by feeding first on the non-essential tissues, and moving on to the vital organs as the interloper approaches pupation and doesn\u2019t need a live host anymore. The <em>Myopa<\/em> fly overwinters as a pupa in its host\u2019s body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fast forward two months, and the BugLady sighted what she thought was a solitary wasp called a <a href=\"http:\/\/bugguide.net\/node\/view\/968790\/bgimage\">potter wasp<\/a>, but which turned out to be another thick-headed fly, <em>Physocephala tibialis<\/em> (probably). <a href=\"http:\/\/Bugguide.net\/\">bugguide.net<\/a> calls <em>Physocephala<\/em> the most commonly seen genus of thick-headed flies. <em>P. tibialis<\/em> occurs east of a line from Wisconsin to Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"aligncenter uwm-c-img--center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-physocephala16-a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-physocephala16-a.jpg\" alt=\"thck-hdd-fly-physocephala16-a\" class=\"wp-image-948\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-physocephala16-a.jpg 500w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-physocephala16-a-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2016\/08\/thck-hdd-fly-physocephala16-a-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Gory Details<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Physocephala tibialis<\/em> targets the two-spotted bumblebee (<em>Bombus bimaculatus<\/em>, brown-belted bumblebee (<em>B. grisecollis<\/em>) and common Eastern bumblebee (<em>B. impatiens<\/em>) and its <em>modus operandi<\/em> is similar to that of other family members. Typically, it\u2019s the worker bees that get infested\u2014the queens are active earlier and are tucked away in the nest by the time <em>Physocephala<\/em> emerges (other species of <em>Physocephala<\/em>, though, may occupy the queens of late emerging bumblebee species). There have been a number of studies that show that the life spans of parasitized bumblebees aren\u2019t significantly shortened, though as the parasitoid grows, the bee can\u2019t carry home as much nectar. Bumblebees will chill, literally, to put off the inevitable, seeking cooler spots, even sleeping outside at night to slow the growth within them. If lots of the workers in a nest are infested, future queens may be smaller in size and may not have enough energy to get through the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fly larvae pupate in their host\u2019s body\u2014a simple, declarative sentence with some interesting layers. First of all, although most fly larvae (maggots) have mouthparts that allow them to chew, their elders do not; adults mainly suck\/sponge up soft-ish liquids, sometimes using their saliva to enhance the softening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Question:<\/strong> Trapped within the dried husk of its former host and absent a Swiss army knife (or teeth) how does a newly emerged thick-headed fly effect its escape?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong> It uses its <em>ptilinum<\/em> (pronounced ptilinum). In some (but not all) groups of flies, the emerging fly has an eversible pouch on the top of its head that it can inflate like a tiny balloon in order to push its way out of a tight spot. Small, tactile hairs on the balloon\u2019s surface help to guide the fly. Conopid flies have a thicker ptilinium than most other flies, and both ptilinum and mouthparts are covered with hard scales, presumably to give an extra assist in emerging from an underground host\/pupal case (<em>Physocephala<\/em> uses its legs and mouthparts to pry its way out once an exit is created). After its \u201csingle use,\u201d the ptilinum is reabsorbed. (Great photos at: <a href=\"https:\/\/bugtracks.wordpress.com\/2015\/09\/30\/balloon-faced-flies-part-3\/\">Balloon-faced Flies, Part 3<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But wait\u2014\u201cemerging from an underground host\/pupal case?\u201d What are these bee parasitoids doing underground in the first place? Adaptive manipulation, that\u2019s what. The BugLady has written about adaptive manipulation before, in the person of insects who are steered by a parasite\/virus\/bacteria go against their normal behavior and do something that aids their inhabitants\u2019 reproductive strategies\u2014climb to the top of a plant before death, jump in the pond, stand out in the open and be picked off by the next-host, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conopid flies, it seems, program their sun-loving hosts to dig into the soil during their last moments and die there (it\u2019s called, aptly, \u201cgrave-digging behavior\u201d). The bee is past help, but the interment greatly improves the fly\u2019s chances of surviving the winter and avoiding predators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When infestation rates among <em>Physocephala tibialis<\/em>\u2019 three potential hosts are compared, the self-burial rates of the Brown-belted bumblebee were about one-quarter those of the other two (which are more closely related to each other). While it is true that some hosts can resist\/overcome potential hostile takeovers, it seems that the brown-belted bumblebee may simply be \u201cless suggestable\u201d than the other two. So, if it can\u2019t reliably influence the bee, the fly may be less inclined to trust it with its offspring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Grisly enough for you, BugFan L?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<br><em>The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Thick-headed flies<\/strong> nectar on flowers, but Ms. <em>Myopa<\/em> has an ulterior motive for being there&mdash;she\u2019s looking for hosts for her offspring. When she spies a potential host, she flies up, intercepts the incoming bee in flight, grabs it, and inserts a single egg between two of its abdominal segments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[80],"class_list":["post-945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week","tag-flies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Field Station<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/tricks-of-the-trade-thick-headed-flies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tricks of the Trade - Thick-headed Flies (Family Conopidae)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thick-headed flies nectar on flowers, but Ms. Myopa has an ulterior motive for being there&mdash;she\u2019s looking for hosts for her offspring. 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