When I look at the thorax it reminds me of a kind of house fly, but then the two white bands on its abdomen and the shape and hairiness of it make me think of a bumble-bee-like fly.
I found it complete immobile on the glass pane of my fathers veranda.
It appeared to be dead, I don't know how it managed then to keep hold on the glass. When I looked at the other side of the glass I noticed something like the beginning of a whitish mould on the underside of its body.
other pict..
and a last..
They do get a fungi which can nearly encase them, and that happens overnight. I had some pics of two flies (which were OK first time). I had taken pics at night under a Fuchsia flower, the next morning they were nearly encased with white fungi! I don't have the pics on this computer, maybe on DVD, I posted them somewhere on DG a long time ago though.
Ah, now that you mention that I also remember you posting about this phenomenon, don't remember though in which thread or even forum..
Perhaps the white bands are not what they appear but just the white fungus..
This appears to be a tachinid fly that has been parasitized by an entomophagous fungus. Some of these, such as Beauveria tenella (see http://www.sbioinformatics.com/images/Bassiana.jpg) will attack a wide variety of insects; others, such as Empusa muscae (see http://www.holz-schimmel.de/fungimag/empusa-1415.jpg) appear to specialize on flies.
Thanks Suunto! Although 'creepy' that was interesting info!
In a way it was subdued to a similar fate as its own victims..
Now I also know in what family (Trachinidae) I have to do a search.
I think I'll mark this thread as solved, no use to keep it open, as there is no way to get its ID for sure. The white bands on the abdomen must have been created by the fungus so have no use for identification. One week after I went back to my father's house, the fly was still there in the same spot, just a little more moulded. The weather has been unfavourable for the fungus though as the weather has been quite dry and sunny.
It was rather difficult to get a reasonable picture, but for anyone (who knows who's interested..) i'll post an updated picture,( not very good quality though as I had to do it in a hurry, my old father is quite puzzled seeing me in strange positions taking pictures of 'imperceptible' things, not understanding and I find it too complicated to explain, lol!)
It is the underside of the fly
An interesting article put on another thread!
http://www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/features/insects/entomophthora/entomophora.htm
Very informative article indeed and I've also read the other thread on the subject. Thank you!
