This distinctive fruit fly is a specialist on Black Walnut fruit. MBP currently has 11 records spanning six counties for the species, the Walnut Husk Fly (Rhagoletis suavis).
According to the USDA (USDA Forest Service General Technical Report NC-57): "The Walnut Husk Fly breeds and lay eggs in the husks of nearly mature walnut fruits in early autumn. The larvae burrow into and feed on the husk, producing black, slimy husks that stain and stick to the shell. The maggots can sometimes be seen crawling in the husks.
Husk maggots and husk flies do not penetrate into the nut, so the taste and color of the nutmeat are not affected. However, the slimy nature of the husks reduces their value to commercial nutmeat producers because the husk is difficult to remove. The infested husks also make the nuts unattractive and undesirable to the private walnut grower."
📸: (c) Stephen John Davies - Montgomery Co., Maryland (8/10/2022).
🔍 More at Maryland Biodiversity Project:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/18196
Bill
The Black Bee Fly (Anthrax georgicus) is one of many new insect species to have a common name added to MBP. MBP editors like Mark Etheridge, Dave Webb, and Jim Moore have been supplementing insect pages with new common names, missing Hodges numbers (day-flying Lepidoptera), and useful status and description information. (Thanks, guys!) Kudos to iNaturalist as well for often leading with common name adoption, making various taxonomic groups more accessible. iNaturalist and MBP both maintain robust sets of synonyms to find taxa by multiple names.
Bee flies ARE flies. Remember DI-PTERA (two wings) and also that true flies (Order Diptera) have a space in the common name. Robber flies are flies; dragonflies are not. The bee flies (Bombyliidae ) are all fascinating and specialized in their life histories. BugGuide summarizes the family: "Larvae are mostly external parasitoids of holometabolous larvae (esp. soil-dwelling Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera); a few are endoparasites, predators (esp. on grasshopper eggs), or kleptoparasites; adults take nectar/pollen."
This species is a specialist of tiger beetles!
📸: (c) Adrienne van den Beemt, some rights reserved (CC BY, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) - Prince George's Co., Maryland (7/10/2022).
🔍 More at Maryland Biodiversity Project:
https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/9804