Subfamily Lomatiinae - Long-wings Bee Flies
Family Bombyliidae
This page contains pictures and information about Bee Flies in Subfamily Lomatiinae
that we found in
the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- In this subfamily, the Bee flies have relatively longer wings and longer body. They are usually brown to dark brown in colours. Their wing vein Rs forks well before r-m, with R4 and R5 strongly looped. They usually have the narrower and flattened abdomen. Most species belong to the genus Comptosia and Aleucosia.
- Common Long-wings Bee Fly
- Comptosia decedens, body length 20mm
- This Bee Fly is common in Karawatha Forest during summer season. They are usually found resting on the sandy footpath. Some are laying eggs with end tip of abdomen inserted into the soil. We have more pictures and information in this page.
- Unknown Long-wings Bee Fly
- ? Comptosia sp, body length 20mm
- This Bee Fly was found laying eggs in soil.
- Brown Long-wings Bee Fly
- Comptosia neosobria, body length 20mm
- In early summer, we found many of them resting on the sandy footpath in Karawatha Forest. Some of them were mating. More pictures and information can be found in here.
- White-tipped Long-wings Bee Fly
- Comptosia rubrifera, male (with white wing tips) body length 15mm
- The Bee Fly is dark brown to black in colours with golden hairs on body. Wings are tinted in brown colour. Male has the white stripe on wing tip. We saw this Bee Fly once in Anstead Forest on Nov 2009. Pleas check this page for more information.
- Costal Long-wings Bee Fly
- Aleucosia costalis, body length 15mm
- The Bee Fly is dark brown in colour with dark brown strip on each wing front margin. The pictures were taken in Alexandra Hill during late winter.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 759.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p364.
- 3. Family BOMBYLIIDAE - Australasian/Oceanian Diptera Catalog - Web Version, by Greg Daniels.
- 4. Revision of the Australian bee fly genus Comptosia (Diptera : Bombyliidae) - D Yeates, Invertebrate Taxonomy, 5: 1023-1178,1991
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 759.
