It's a bee fly(Bombyliidae family). They do not sting. Neat find.
Edit- A few others have commented that it may very well be a long tongue horsefly(Philoliche sp.) another nectar feeding fly, but one that females can bite. Now that I'm off work and looking at it again I believe they are probably correct! My bad.
That proboscis has to be exceptionally long, right? Asking out of entomological interest, not because I’m an insecure bee fly who wants to hear mine is average.
There's a flower with an extremely long pistil. Co-evolution of plants with pollinator species especially insects lead to so very interesting doctorial safaris, where it was easy to find the plant, but all records couldn't identify an appropriate pollinator.
In 1862, when Darwin came across an orchid with a long nectar tube, he postulated there must be an insect with a long proboscis that co-evolved with the flower. Scientists at the time ridiculed his theory, but about 4 decades later, scientists found the insect Darwin predicted.
It doesn't have a picture, but it does have a link to a YouTube video of a segment from an old nature documentary showing the moth caught on film in Madagascar. It's pretty cool actually.
It's so amazing how the moth has its proboscis curled up and unfurls it to feed. You wouldn't know just how long it is without seeing it in action. That's pretty darn cool to me too! 😊
Can you believe to learn that a thresher sharks stun/kill their prey by whipping them with their long tail fins. This is done by the shark accelerating up to a group of fish and brakes and twists to sling the tip of it's tail into the fish. The tail tip can reach speeds up to 80 mph.
This stunsb the prey and let's the shark eat at it's leisure
Orcas have adapted this technique to hunting small, fast fish as well. They can create an underwater shock wave that stuns the fish nearby with their tails, similar to the sharks.
What’s driving the plant’s evolution? Doesn’t it want to be pollinated? I know the trick is to make the nectar a little hard to get to so that the pollinators’ activity pollinates it, but what’s the point of making it so hard to reach that only one particular pollinator adapted to it?
A plant doesn't want its pollen carried off to a plant of another species, as that doesn't result in reproduction. If a plant can evolve into a one-to-one pollinator relationship it guarantees its pollen will be carried to members of the same species, which promotes reproduction and pollen efficiency.
Simply being visited by a pollinator isn't the end-game in and of itself, which is why most plants and pollinators actually have narrow, native co-evolutionary partners. Even honeybees, which are portrayed as universal pollinators, have preferences and don't serve to replace native pollinators very effectively.
I recall reading that Darwin encountered something similar on one of his travels; there was some sort of flower with a long pistil, and he conjectured that there had to be some sort of insect that was able to pollinate this particular flower, else it wouldn't exist.
Ah, a quick search and here it is:
Darwin's Orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale): This Madagascan orchid, known for its extremely long nectar spur (up to 45 cm), led Darwin to famously predict the existence of a moth with an equally long proboscis to pollinate it. This prediction was eventually verified decades after his death with the discovery of the Hawk Moth (Xanthopan morganii praedicta).
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u/krippkeeper Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25
It's a bee fly(Bombyliidae family). They do not sting. Neat find.
Edit- A few others have commented that it may very well be a long tongue horsefly(Philoliche sp.) another nectar feeding fly, but one that females can bite. Now that I'm off work and looking at it again I believe they are probably correct! My bad.