Southwest US suggestions for Macro Gals & Fly Guys |
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pdeley ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 05 June 2008 Country: United States Location: United States Status: Offline Posts: 2717 |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Posted: 14 November 2015 at 20:56 |
This is a travel & technique guide for macro fanatics interested in chasing down some of the strange, scary, wonderful and otherwise exciting kinds of flies found in Southwestern deserts of the U.S. Many of the example images shown were taken at sites marked here on a dedicated google map.
Comments, questions and expressions of horror are all welcome! Edited by pdeley - 19 November 2015 at 00:15 |
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a450, a500, a65, a7, 700si & other 35 mm bodies, Sig 15-30, sam 30 2.8 macro, Pentax 40 2.8 pan, Sig 70 f2.8 macro, Vivi 90 f2.8 macro, Mino 100-400 apo, 300 f4, 500 f8, 600 f4
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pdeley ![]() Senior Member ![]() Joined: 05 June 2008 Country: United States Location: United States Status: Offline Posts: 2717 |
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The American West abounds with nature photography opportunities, including world famous National Parks and National Monuments like Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon, Sequoia and Joshua Tree. These are covered in numerous travel guides, including some of dyxum's own threads (click here for a list of suggested places or search the site by state names for lots of photo threads).
Reaching these places typically requires several hours of driving, and the most practical approach for traversing the West's huge distances is to string several Parks along a road trip taking a week or more. However, few or no travel resources mention what can be found in between those great wilderness attractions. By way of a sampler, here's a guide to some interesting off-the-beaten-path locations and subjects that may particularly interest the macro addicts among us. The macro subjects I'll highlight here are not the typical ones either (flowers and butterflies). Instead, let's look at some of the great diversity of eye-catching flies in the Southwestern desert, which are very different from your run-of-the-mill housefly or bluebottle. To keep track of where different stops are, I have set up a Google map here. The symbols on that map are just to pinpoint each spot more clearly, while different colors of those symbols group sites that are relatively easy to combine on a 2-3 day outing. ![]() Exoprosopa calyptera, one of the most strikingly patterned bee flies in western deserts. Note how the white surfaces on the body and wing roots are actually made up of silvery reflective scales. Shot near Medano Creek in Great Sand Dunes NP, CO. Flies aren't just among my personal photo fetishes, but are also macro worthy because: (1) many of the wild species can be identified with the help of free tools such as bugguide.net; (2) their specialized life cycles tie in with high diversity of other life forms (flowering plants, bees and butterflies, as well as charismatic predators like spiders, dragonflies, birds, lizards etc etc etc). Finding good spots with interesting fly diversity will also give you opportunities to photograph many of those other critters. Before we go into the peculiar fly fauna of the Southwestern Deserts, let's quickly review the most important tools and techniques for macro hunting in the arid West: Timing is Everything yet Every Desert Trip is Different! Desert landscapes look timeless, but conditions fluctuate greatly between seasons, between noon and midnight, wind patterns can be very changeable, and rainfall can and does occur. All of these factors drive occurrence of vegetation and wildlife (including insects) between different times of the year, and also between successive years. Rainfall is often highly unpredictable, sometimes with catastrophic downpours in relatively small areas, while other places can remain dry while just 10 miles away. Always check weather forecasts and road conditions beforehand, take appropriate precautions against heat stroke (=hat, sunblock, 1 gallon of water per person) as well as against hyponatremia (salty snacks, isotonic fluids) but also be prepared for cold weather in winter. Keep your eyes on the skies: conditions can change dramatically and the sudden apparition of rain or dust clouds means it's time to get back to the car. It is also easy to get stranded at night due to car trouble or roads that take much longer to drive than anticipated, so don't forget flashlights, spare batteries, blankets or sleeping bags (if it's winter) and a camping mat+tent or a travel hammock (in summer). Other basic essentials are a gps unit, topo maps, a well-stocked first aid kit, etc etc. Spiny plants and sharp rocks will nab you in the calves or lower backside from time to time, and there's always the possibility of an encounter with poisonous wildlife, so always wear sturdy thick-soled shoes and long pants. Dry heat doesn't suit mosquitoes well, and western varieties of (rattle)snakes are mostly less aggressive than those in Texas and the Southeast, but there is no lack of bees, wasps, ants, true bugs, scorpions etc. If anyone in your party has special reason to worry about stings or bites then bring along benadril or epinephrine shots, and make sure they (or you) wear snake chaps. Great times for a trip are: March through May for western California, where it tends to rain mostly in winter versus May to September for eastern California, Nevada and the Four Corners states (= Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico), where it tends to rain mostly in summer to fall. Find out from the locals about day-to-day quirks in local and regional weather, plus exactly where the best patches of wildflower blooms can be found. Even if wildflowers aren't evident, keep your eyes peeled for flowering shrubs/perennials. Many major desert attractors of pollinators aren't showy when they bloom, and yet they provide copious amounts of nectar and pollen for a few days or weeks, drawing in a local frenzy of bees, wasps, flies, moths, beetles etc etc. The key to getting lots of chances at macro shots is to find a dozen or so blooming plants fairly close together, where many pollinators will be attracted to a limited choice of dinner tables. Quite often the large majority of hungry insects will feed on just three or four individual plants in a patch. In an unusually wet winter or summer (for example in an El Niño year) massive blooms can occur over truly vast areas. Those make for great landscapes and flower macros, but local pollinators and herbivores won't necessarily keep up with the sudden abundance of food. Depending on temperature and other factors, insects may actually become much harder to find. On the other hand, if temperatures are not too cold then some butterfly species like painted ladies or moths like the lined sphinx can reproduce in massive numbers, with hordes of caterpillars chomping up every sprig, leaf and flower over areas of several square miles. Such outbursts directly benefit smaller caterpillar predators (ants, predatory beetles, parasitoids like slender-waisted wasps), as well as larger insectivores (lizards, flycatchers and roadrunners). If the wind and temperature are ideal, then a grand finale will follow in which thousands of butterflies move through the air with prevailing winds. ![]() To Bee or Not To Bee: on the left is a solitary ground bee, on the right is a bee fly known as Villa agrippina. The latter is one of the most common flies in the southwest. Look closely at the wing roots of the true bee to see a second set of veins underneath, corresponding to a folded-away second pair of wings. Flies on the other hand have only one pair of wings. Shot in a dry wash along the east side of Isabella Walker Pass Rd, west of Inyokern, CA. Villa flies were far more abundant here than all foraging bees and wasp species together. What are Flies & Which Kinds are the most interesting macro subjects? Half of all the orders of flying insects have names that include the word "fly". True flies however belong to one particular order: the Diptera aka "two wings". Diptera also include insects like mosquitoes, gnats and midges, all of which share a pair of special gyroscopic organs called the halteres: these are small, whitish or yellowish drumstick-shaped projections located behind and underneath the root of each flying wing. ![]() Not a wasp but a fly: notice the greenish-yellow blob projecting from under the wing root? That's the haltere of a true fly, that is! Diptera are the only insect order with two flying wings that are never tucked away under hardened covers, contrary to beetles and earwigs, which do have two flying wings but keep those folded and covered up under wing covers while the insect is on the ground. It can be quite a challenge to see how many wings an insect has, even if there are no wing covers to hide the flying wings under. Many four-winged insects at rest fold the posterior pair of wings underneath the anterior one. During active flight the wings often beat so fast that our eyes cannot count whether there are two or four. In bees, wasps and flying ants (aka the insect order Hymenoptera) the posterior pair of wings is smaller than the anterior pair, and the wings on each side don't just overlap but are actually held together by interlocking hooks or bristles. Even worse, the body shape + color of many bees and wasps are closely mimicked by harmless lookalikes that are in fact Diptera. When in doubt, take shots of the insect first, ideally while it isn't flying and from different angles, then ask questions later! In most Diptera the haltere behind each wing root will be visible in a correctly focused side view, even if the insect otherwise looks almost exactly like a bee, a wasp or an ant royal. Southwestern deserts are home to a truly absurd number of insect and plant species: just under 700 bee species and 1000 plant species are known from the Mojave Desert alone, which is just one of the four major US deserts. Many different families and species of flies live in the same ecosystems, and a large number of these species feed on select insect stages (including bee larvae or adults) as larvae, and/or use nectar and pollen from flowers as their primary food source when they have become adult. For macro photography, not all fly families are equally interesting subjects. In some the majority of species have adults that are small and/or uniform in appearance, while others contain a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors. Behavior differs considerably too, but the following generalities apply most of the time: 1) Activity and alertness levels increase dramatically with temperature, cooler temperatures induce flies to find good spots for warming up by basking in sunlight. 2) Flies usually have excellent eyesight, bigger species usually react to your approach from greater distances than smaller species. 3) Dark shapes or silhouettes are major triggers of escape, as are fast movements. 4) Most flies will sit with their body in a straight posture and wings folded flat and directed backwards. This means that: (1) 9 to 10 am or so is often the best time window for finding interesting desert flies and for sneaking up close, with good light on the basking subjects. By noon they have warmed up enough to become super alert, fly at top speeds and bask or rest for no longer than a few seconds in between flights. (2) + (3) you'll want to move steady but slowly (or not at all), wear lighter colored clothing (not fluo vibrant), and above all keep your shadow from falling over the subject. (4) Flies will more often permit sharp pictures with important detail in a side view as well from above, including especially wing vein patterns. Bees and wasps are often hard to get in focus with well-lit detail from head to tail because many tend to curl their abdomen. Many butterflies close their wings vertically over the abdomen, which makes it harder to accurately capture all the details of wing veins and color patterns needed for subsequent identification. With that in mind, here are some of the most interesting fly families found in the southwest: ![]() Face to face with a robberfly from the genus Stomatopogon. Note the deeply recessed facial surface between both eyes, the bristly mystax and black beak on the lower half of the face, as well as the thick spines placed in rows along the legs. Shot next to Medano Creek in Great Sand Dunes NP, CO. 1. Asilidae aka Robberflies: These voracious predators (both as larvae and as adults) are represented by some 200 species in the Wes, ranging in size from less than a cm to 2 solid inches. Adults have a slender cylindrical abdomen that is much longer than the combined length of head+thorax. The thorax is the body part to which the wings and legs attach, in asilids it is clearly higher than wide, while their legs are usually long yet sturdy, and most often covered with rows of prominent spines. The eyes are large and separated by a deeply recessed facial groove, which is often covered with a bristly mystax aka moustache composed of dense white or yellowish whiskers. The facial groove always has a robust beak protruding forward from its lower edge. This beak is typically black, fairly short and serves as a scabbard that houses longer and thin stiletto-like blades. These blades extrude from the tip of the beak to stab prey and suck out their body fluids. They're only rarely visible in photos. ![]() Side view of a male of the same species and the same spot as the previous image, showing its long and thin abdomen as well as the high bulging thorax typical of this family. Robberflies are extremely sharp-eyed ambush predators that take off from the bare ground, rocks or tips of branches to intercept insects flying overhead. In between such near-vertical interceptions they typically sit still with little or no walking, only the head turning from time to time to track anything that looks like potential prey on the move. Robberflies at rest fold the wings in full overlap with one another and with the abdomen, rather than in the inverse V position that's typical of houseflies, bluebottles etc. They can seem quite lazy when disturbed, as many species will only fly for a few feet or meters before landing again. However, the speed and accuracy of their interceptions belie all appearances of laziness: prey includes fast and powerful fliers such as moths and dragonflies, super agile beeflies or damselflies, and dangerous opponents bees and wasps. ![]() Sting or no sting, everything's snackable if you're a single-minded robberfly... Note that the poor bee has no halteres, while the robber does (=the brownish out of focus dot near right margin of image). Shot at Wind Wolves Preserve between Maricopa and Grapevine, CA A failed interception hardly ever turns into pursuit: if the robber doesn't succeed in grabbing its prey then it will return to perch and wait for the next opportunity. If successful on the other hand, then the hunter will slam its spiny legs around the prey and stab it in the neck or thorax. If the prey is instantly killed then the hunter will fly down to a nearby perch and feed for several minutes. Bigger victims can keep struggling for longer, causing both combatants to plummet onto the ground in a spiny wrestler's lock, until all struggling ends or until the prey manages to shake off its assailant in a last-ditch effort. Sometimes a successful robber won't even bother to sit upright or find a proper perch, feeding instead in whatever posture and spot both insects fell to the ground. Robberflies also hunt one another without hesitation, either to mate or to feed - including cannibalism within one and the same species. They can occur in high numbers in particular locations, but always spread out evenly rather than aggregating in the exact same spot. Probably there's competition for the best perches: sometimes they fly over to chase away (or catch?) another robber that just landed nearby. ![]() No honor among robbers: one Efferia female eats another. Shot near Beaver Dam Mountain Rd, west of St George, UT - this area had by far the highest density of robber flies I've encountered anywhere so far. Different species and genera of robbers can have marked differences in preferences for perches, depending on available types of vegetation, bare or gravely/rocky soil surfaces, open versus shaded spots etc. In southwestern deserts, dry gullies and small clearings between denser scrub are often productive macro hunting grounds for finding and photographing robbers as well as other unusual flies. In the morning, these insects will choose a sun-facing side of a rock or sandy spot to warm up. Moreover, basking spots in a gully provide perfect jump-off points for intercepting prey during the rest of the day, especially after slight breezes turn into gusty winds around late morning: gullies then become wind shelters preferred by many winged insects over the exposed surroundings. Robberflies usually aren't conspicuously colored. The easiest way to find them in arid landscapes is to slowly walk a dry gully that is neither too deep nor too shallow, and which has at least a few knee- to waist-high flowering plants that attract good numbers of pollinators. Minimize all noises and keep your ears on high alert! For me, the first sign of a nearby robberfly is often the characteristic buzz of their short escape flight, rather than my spotting them by eye while they're still at rest. Mid-sized species (approx 2/3rds to 1 inch) like Efferias produce a sound that is fairly close in pitch to honeybees, often a little bit higher and louder in males versus slightly below honeybee pitch in females. Unlike the more swervy and longer lasting flights of honeybees, escaping robbers either produce a short (2-3 seconds) but even buzz that stops abruptly when they've landed on their next perch, or a brief succession of short buzz pulses with an abrupt final stop. I've never seen a robber rev its wings while perched, unlike bees which often keep their engines running after landing & especially while feeding and crawling around on bunched flowers. Other types of flies often sound distinctly different from medium-sized robberflies too, for example bluebottles will stay on the wing much longer while constantly turning and looping around you, producing an easily distinguished persistent-yet-super-swervy buzz. Large (up to 2 inches) aka giant robberflies like Promachus and Proctacanthus species make lower-pitched sounds in flight, closer to the droning buzz of for example bumble bees, tarantula hawks or carpenter bees, but typically softer sounding. As with Efferias, giant robberflies won't keep revving if they're not actually flying, resulting in a buzz with clearly defined start and stop. Their escape flights last distinctly longer however, producing a sound pattern that lasts well over 5 seconds, easily moving 20 yards or further away from they just took off. ![]() Mother of all Robbers: this giant Promachus female easily pierced a small beetle's armor. Shot after a 50-yard steeple chase through the scrub of the southern limestone plateau in Grand Staircase Escalante NM. In all cases, what you'll try catch a glimpse of is the insect's landing spot. Keep your eyes on that spot and approach it from a direction where your shadow won't fall on or near the subject. Most robbers choose a perch that allows them to sit in a more-or-less horizontal posture, although some of the giants prefer a head-up/abdomen-down posture instead. As you get closer, avoid touching any branches that might shake up the insect, and make sure to locate its exact position before you go in for the final approach (well before looking through the viewfinder). Even in the relatively open settings of a desert landscape these steps are often the point at which your unwilling model takes off again. If so, then go back to the try-to-catch-a-glimpse step three sentences back. If your subject hasn't bailed out at this point, then it's time to hit the dirt in slow motion. On flat ground, drop down on one knee and then the other in slow motion, keeping your shadow away from the immobile robber. Bring the camera to your eye and lean forward (slowly!) to start focusing and shooting, if it has chosen a perch that's a foot or more above ground level. If it's sitting on the ground itself, or just a few inches above it, then you'll want to bring your elbows down slowly for a ground-level shot, still taking care to keep your shadow as far away for as long as possible (by this stage far away often means just a few inches!) while you close in with the camera and start shooting. This tends to be a knee-busting, skin-scratching and back-breaking experience, so it's a good idea to wear old denims or other long pants with fabric thick enough to protect the knees and lower legs. Sore joints and bruises are easier to avoid if the fly is perched on one of the sloping sides of a gully, rather than on the flat bottom. In that case it can also be easier to close in without getting tricked by your shadow, provided the slope isn't too soft and crumbly for a good foothold. The final approach is typically the stage at which you'll discover uninvited arrival of Freeloader Flies aka Milichiidae. Freeloaders are tiny, dark brown to blackish flies specialized in tracking down freshly killed bees and bugs within seconds of getting caught by a spider, robberfly or other insect predator. ![]() Freeloader flies on a bee caught by a nearly invisible ambush bug. In the western US, dead bees dangling from flowerheads are a sure sign of a well-camouflaged spider or predatory bug lurking among the blooms. The freeloader's purpose is to steal some of the prey's body fluids while its captor is feeding, but they are often also extremely interested in the nose, mouth and ears of any transpiring photographer that happens to be crouching in a gully. Don't panic! Other than trying to get themselves swallowed or stuck in your ear canal, they're mostly harmless. Try not to inhale any, and don't swat or make other sudden movements that will scare away your favorite robberfly. More likely than not, the robber will focus on one of the freeloaders circling your ears, buzz up to snatch it ... and land back on the same spot with its reward. Your photo ops just became twice as interesting as before! In fact, the more tiny prey you allow the robberfly to catch and eat, the more likely it is to keep snacking and landing back on the same perch with every catch. (This trick can also work with damselflies, although with those you're more likely to have mosquitoes buzzing around you + sampling your blood supply, while you literally itch for the damselfly to start hunting). 2. Apioceridae aka Flower-loving flies: Apiocerids resemble robberflies in overall shape and size, but are much more limited in diversity and worldwide distribution. They do not occur in Eurasia, nor in the eastern half of North America. Even in the southwest I've only rarely come across one or two of these, and most proved very hard to approach and photograph. Apiocerid flies are usually about an inch long and have an abdomen that is wider in front, more tapering at the back and a bit more flattened above than in robberflies. The thorax isn't nearly as high, the area between both eyes isn't recessed and they lack the mystax, protruding black beak or rows of thick spines seen in most robbers. Adult apiocerids don't feed at all or feed only on nectar, never on other insects. Their larval food preferences are largely unknown but are assumed to be predatory. ![]() A mating pair of Apiocera enjoying my hat as an apparently romantic setting. A hat is essential when out & about in the dry west, but not usually a key prop for macro photography. Shot in Azalea Creek on the north side of San Jacinto Mts, CA Photographing apiocerids relies on many of the same tricks as for robberflies: dry gullies also appear to be a good setting for hearing, spotting and approaching them. Unlike robberflies however, there never seem to be more than a few individuals around, and they tend to fly a bit further away when disturbed. This all makes them harder to catch in pixels. On the other hand, their habit of nectar feeding simplifies things: they're much easier to spot on flowers than on the ground, plus if you position yourself at the opposite side of a plant, then there's a decent chance that they'll move towards you while hopping from flowerhead to flowerhead (see further below). If you're more familiar with insects of Eurasia or the Eastern US, then many of the above features will remind you of another robber-like fly family, the Rhagionidae or Snipe flies. If you come across a "snipe fly" at low altitude in a western desert, wash or scrubland, then you're likely looking at an apiocerid instead. Snipe flies are mostly insect predators and much less common in the west than in the eastern US (except for the genus Symphoromyia, which is common in western pine forests and will try to bite & suck blood). The two families are primarily distinguished by wing vein patterns - which are not asy to observe in the wild on a live fly that's free to escape. The only easy field differences that I know of are: snipe flies have a distinct beak which points downward from the head (not absent as in apiocerids, nor protruding forward as in robberflies) and they fold the wings in a reverse V when perched (rather than folding them in full overlap with the abdomen and each other). ![]() Is this an apiocerid in the desert west? Nope, it's a snipe fly on a european tree trunk: notice the presence of a distinct beak but no mystax or spine-covered legs. Also interesting: the thin yellow-brownish drumstick under the wing root is a haltere, key feature of Diptera only. 3. Bombyliidae aka Bee flies: Bee flies of the American West are infinitely varied in color, size and shape, and the original cause of my desert dipteran macro obsession. Their size ranges from just a few mm to over an inch; they can be the most abundant pollinators visible in a patch of desert flowers. Many species mimic bees, bumble bees or wasps in appearance. Quite a few have wings that are mostly or partly tinted with brown to black pigment, sometimes forming intricate wing patterns that overlap with color patterns on the body itself. Body color is often produced by short or long hairs, which can form thick fur and make the fly resemble a fat and hyperactive bumble bee, even when the abdomen itself is actually thin, flattened or conical in shape. Other species have flattened hairs, sometimes similar to the scales of butterfly wings. In some bee flies there are silver-, copper- or gold-colored bands of metallic hairs/scales, serving as very effective light reflectors in particular angles of view. Some bee flies have an elongated straw-like beak that can be as long as the body, while othes have shorter beaks that may or may not be folded away underneath the head. Most are acrobatic fliers, capable of hovering in place for minutes at a time, flying in reverse, turning course abruptly or accelerating dramatically from a static hover to a missile-like exit. Many bee flies approach a landing spot with extreme caution and several false landings, changing pitch of their wing's buzz and finally landing at much lower speed than their initial approach. Adults feed on nectar, sometimes with very strong preferences for certain plant species only. Larvae are often parasites or predators of the eggs or larvae of other insects, especially of ground bees, ground wasps or bumble bees. ![]() Lordotus planus, one of the bumble bee mimics with long hair covering an abdomen that's actually a lot less rotund than a bumble bee's. Note the spindly legs and long beak, neither of which is found in bees or hoverflies. Not all bee flies look like this however! Many of their features resemble the unrelated fly family Syrphidae aka Hoverflies, which are less abundant or diverse in the Southwest, but very common in temperate parts of the world. Placing a mystery fly into bombyliids versus syrphids can be quite hard, and is sometimes only possible by looking at the trailing edges of the wings: in beeflies (nearly) all the wing veins reach the wing's trailing edge, while in hoverflies most veins turn towards the wing tip just before reaching the wing's edge, forming a "false edge" that extends over about half the wing's length. ![]() Copestylum avidum, one of the more common hoverfly species in the southwest. Take a closer look at the right wing and notice the "false edge" formed by veins running parallel to the true edge. In the field that difference may be hard to spot, but you're probably dealing with a bee fly and not a hoverfly if: 1) Abdominal color and texture look more powdery than furry and there are no shiny yellow or metallic-to-black smooth surfaces (this means you're more likely looking at a beefly with scale-like hairs), 2) there's a distinct long + thin beak on a very furry fly that often stays in the air while feeding (hoverflies that mimic bumble bees have shorter feeding structures and hardly ever feed on the wing), 3) the wings have many dark patches, or a single large patch covering most or all of the wing's length (hoverfly wings are usually clear or tinted lightly & uniformly, though some species have one or two dark patches), 4) the face of the fly is evenly curved below the antennae (hoverflies often have one or more rigid nose- or cone-like projections of the facial surface; these are located below the antennae and different from the beak aka feeding organs proper, see the Copestylum picture above for an out-of-focus example) ![]() Mating male and female of the bee fly Villa agrippina. Note how the wing veins reach the trailing edges of the wings, and how the lower part of the face doesn't project forward below the short antennae. Shot in Apache Canyon near Ventucopa, CA. In practice these rules of thumb are no guarantee. Some species are really only identifiable to family by looking at the wing veins. When in doubt, take shots from different angles and compare the wing patterns on your computer monitor afterwards. Bee flies make exciting and infuriating photo models. In many cases there are plenty of individuals around, switching every few minutes between a distinct resting mode versus feeding mode, and often revisiting the same favorite plants after each rest break. This improves your odds to get shots of multiple angles from multiple individuals, even if some get alarmed enough by your efforts to choose a permanent exit. On the other hand, as temperature increases their rest/feed cycle and alertness both accelerate dramatically. A fully warmed up and/or really small bee fly may literally feed and rest fo only 2 seconds at a time, giving you no chance to complete your approach in either situation. When feeding on the wing (in some cases even if they landed) on flowerheads composed of many tiny flowers, then they move constantly while taking just a tiny sip per individual flower. This gets very challenging because it requires continous adjusting of focus and shifting your angle of view/composition - without losing your balance, bumping the plant, or casting your shadow over the feeding insect(s). Spotting and approaching a bee fly that's perched on the ground or on a branch/rock is again easiest in dry washes and gullies, but often also very productive along sandy trails. In such settings getting within macro range involves the same methods as detailed above for robberflies. If you disturb one before you spotted it, then the buzzing sounds of an escape maneuver will help alert you to the presence and even type of bee fly. Male bee flies can patrol air space by hovering (much like male hoverflies), or choose open spots on the ground where they will sit and wait for females to fly over. Along sandy trails, they will often move just a few yards away and land back on the same trail, giving you the opportunity to try approaching 3 or 4 times in a row before they either scoot back past you to their original spot, or disappear altogether in/over the scrub. Catching a bee fly girl on the wing is just as challenging to a male bombyliid as it is to a robber fly intercepting its prey. Many males adopt the strategy of flying up in pursuit of almost any fly that happens to shoot or buzz by - leaving you without a subject. In some cases they will return within minutes to the same spot or one very close by, so don't give up too quickly if you're caught out in the middle of an approach. Wait a minute or two for your elusive model to come back. Sneaking up on a feeding bee fly is easier in some cases than others. Bending over a flowering plant that's less than waist high will cause most pollinators to take off, as their view of the open sky suddenly gets blotted out by a large black silhouette, and as flowers disappear in your shadow. Depending on the angle of sunlight, shape + size of the flowering plant, as well as behavior of the pollinators, it is often more productive to adopt a "let them come to me" tactic instead: observe in which overall direction a foraging fly moves as it skips from flowerhead to flowerhead, then position yourself downstream of its path at the opposite edge of the same plant, then wait for the fly to move closer to you. ![]() A feeding bee fly of the furry bumble-bee-mimicking kind. Caught with a combination of "let-them-come" and low-down approaches. This often also works better than a direct approach when dealing with other pollinators like wary butterflies and larger bees or wasps - though certainly not in all cases. If on the other hand the pollinator you hope to photograph moves too erratically to detect any overall direction, or if it skips whole plants at a time, then plan C is to try a low-down approach from the side: kneel down next to the currently visited plant and come in with the camera horizontally to take side view shots before it takes off again. If time and insect permit, then try to raise yourself very slowly at the end, so as to also get some shots of the upper side (including wing veins). ![]() There's no fly like a Mydas fly: male Rhaphiomidas acton, in the act of not doing anything but wait. Shot in a dry wash along the east side of Isabella Walker Pass Rd, west of Inyokern, CA. 4. Mydidae aka Mydas flies: This last family includes perhaps the most tricky yet most spectacular fly species of the Southwest. Adults visit flowers, while larvae are known or assumed to be underground predators. Here again, the experts base identification primarily on wing vein patterns, and again this is quite hard to do out in the desert while approaching a free and alert insect. Some mydids (like the genus Rhaphiomidas) resemble oversized bee flies, including an absurdly long and slender beak. Others mimic particular types of large wasps such as the black, deep blue and orange colors of tarantula hawks. Making matters even more complicated, there also exists a tarantula hawk-mimicking genus of giant robberflies called Wyliea mydas, its name probably representing the best example of complete mimic confusion: it is an asilid named like a mydas fly yet looking very much like a wasp… ![]() Entypus fasciatus, a true wasp and an example species of the so-called tarantula hawks. Note the very narrow waist and the long antennae with many divisions, both typical for many wasps but not flies. For size references: the little speck in the air above the wasp's antennae is a fruit fly in flight! Most true wasps are distinguishable from their fly mimics by having (a) a very narrow waist-like constriction of the anteriormost abdomen and (b) longer and easily curved antennae. As with many bees and unlike robbers or mydids, some wasps also buzz their wings intermittently while they're feeding on flowers. For macro photography, in practice almost all large pollinators make great subjects for impressive images, so fortunately their true identity often doesn't really matter until you get back to civilization and a large monitor screen. Carpenter bees and large bumble bees excepted, jumbo-sized pollinators are also often quite wary and therefore best handled with "let them come" tactics or with a "Plan C" approach from the side. Rhaphiomidas doesn't just look like an XXL-sized bee fly but actually exhibits very similar behavior, including alternate feeding/resting cycles. However, each of those typically lasts 5-10 minutes even when temperatures max out. Feeding is often done entirely on the wing, and they seem to prefer plants with many small sized flowers (relative to their own size) that produce only small sips of nectar at a time, so it is very challenging to catch one on camera close up and properly focused. ![]() A male Rhaphiomidas fueling up through its extraordinary drinking straw. Note the red coconut on its butt: that's a pair of "claspers" aka protective plates covering its private parts. Shot along Rancho De Lagarto Rd near Wrightwood, CA, heavily cropped and unfortunately not really in focus. While resting, females tend to perch under or inside foliage of shrubs, where it is often impossible to get attractively lit shots. Males are not as hard to spot and approach for photographing on the ground: they choose open spots near flowering plants for their resting places, presumably hoping to intercept female passers-by. Best times to catch them out in the open seem to be between 10am and noon, as well as an hour or so before sunset. The males seem to have definite preferences for a particular gully or sandy trail, as long as they're not positively spooked by your previous attempts of approaching. The hopeful males tend not to take off in pointless pursuit of small insects, but they do fly up to check out large bees or even small birds flying overhead. When you walk by they will scramble from further away than almost any bee fly, producing a deep-pitched, sustained and relatively soft buzz while easily flying 10-20 yards on straight course away from the spot where you disturbed them, before landing at another open patch. Hearing them take off and spotting them before/while they land is especially critical. If you've pinpointed a resting male, make sure to approach from a direction that produces the least possible amount of shadow + silhouette from the fly's POV, and go down on the ground from 2 or more yards distance. Getting really close is feasible, but your final approach will have to be very much in a flat-out slow wriggle style with minimal sideways movements of your elbows, head and camera. And remember above all: Abandon All Hope of Dignity, Ye Who Enter Desert Dipteran Macro Inferno! ![]() ~ o - O - o ~ NB: All shots with a65 + Sigma 70 2.8 macro, no flash, no extension rings or diopters added ![]() Not all crazy shapes of flies live in the dry west: this is Lepidophora lepidocera aka the Scale Bee Fly, one of the strangest forms in the family Bombyliidae. Shot with the help of some flexible yoga twisting while it perched on my denims during a stroll through North Chagrin Reservation east of Cleveland, OH Edited by pdeley - 19 November 2015 at 00:35 |
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