Rhinomyiophily
Rhinomyiophily is largely a Cape Flora phenomenon. Well documented by Vogel in 1954, a consists of a guild of flies with long beaks (some carried forward like spears, others straight down like brooms and others with them tucked below and between their legs) in several families - mainly Bombylidae, Tabanidae and Nemestrinidae.
Plants pollinated by these flies have long, very thin tubes, with flags at the front (distal) end to attract the flies and - just as importantly - guide the tongues into the flowers. The flies have to hover in front of the flowers in order to insert their beaks. They tend to be big, to fly in spring, on hot, less windy, days around midday.
This is a fascinating Syndrome: here we collect both the flies and the flowers.
To contribute, please add the project "Rhinomyiophily" to your observation. This project is restricted to southern Africa.
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Virtually nothing is known about the larval stages of these flies. If you are interested, you can make a major contribution to the conservation of these flies, as well as the plant species that depend on them.
The longest-nosed fly is Moegistorhynchus longirostris - its beak can reach 70mm long - on a body length of about 25mm.
Dogs are terrified of it and flee with their tails between their legs. Presumably females flies need blood!
from http://www.ispotnature.org/node/747954
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4175409/
http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/26843082
http://royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royptb/365/1539/499.full.pdf
What is the cutoff length for 'long'? Or, how short can a long tongue be for a fly to be considered longtongued? Are all bee flies longtongued flies? Or just some of them? Is a fly's proboscis(?) considered a 'tongue' if it's of the hyperdermic kind rather than the sponge type? Would shorttongued flies therefore be included in rhiomyiophily? Just so's I know which of my bee flies I can add to the project.
I would use an arbitrary cutoff of a "tongue" as being a hypodermic at least half the length of the fly. Either carried forward, or folded below the body out of the way (I cannot imagine downward as working) .
Okay, thanks :-)
Next question:
These tiny bombyliids (Megapalpus capensis) - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10938336 - are very specific to orange-flowered Drosanthemum spp. This association does not conform to the thin tubed flowers, or large sized flies, but seems to still be Rhinomyiophily to me. Agree?
No! Megapalpus are boudoir flies. They spend the nights cosy as fly in a flower (bugs like rugs), and emerge in the morning covered with pollen to pollinated nearby flowers searching for nectar and mates (not sure of the order).
Look in any flowers that close, especially daisies and vygies, most especially those with beetles and spots and dark rings.
They also seem to like Pelargoniums with dark tips to the (lower) petals - do they close up at night?
This is a totally different pollination syndrome!
Need more data on this for iNat - not enough at present: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=113055&project_id=interactions-s-afr&subview=grid&taxon_id=604242&verifiable=any
SUMMARY OF ISPOT INFO:
Rhinomyiophily is largely a Cape Flora phenomenon. Well documented by Vogel in 1954, a consists of a guild of flies with long beaks (some carried forward like spears, others straight down like brooms and others with them tucked below and between their legs) in several families - mainly Bombylidae, Tabanidae and Nemestrinidae.
Plants pollinated by these flies have long, very thin tubes, with flags at the front (distal) end to attract the flies and - just as importantly - guide the tongues into the flowers. The flies have to hover in front of the flowers in order to insert their beaks. They tend to be big, to fly in spring, on hot, less windy, days around midday.
This is a fascinating Syndrome: here we collect both the flies and the flowers. To contribute, please add the tag "Rhinomyiophily" to your observation. This is restricted to southern Africa. If you know of the syndrome in other countries: tell us and we will include them.
Comments
The biggest
8 December 2014 - 3:41PM Tony Rebelo
The longest-nosed fly is Moegistorhynchus longirostris - its beak can reach 70mm long - on a body length of about 25mm.
Dogs are terrified of it and flee with their tails between their legs. Presumably females flies need blood!
The southern African community has migrated to iNaturalist at www.inaturalist.org with all its data in early 2018. Beware that southern African data and identifications on this site are out of date and no longer updated.
Some references
15 November 2015 - 8:53PM Tony Rebelo
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4175409/
http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/26843082
http://royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royptb/365/1539/499.full.pdf
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