This is a horror story from my garden! I was walking around enjoying the nice weather and then I noticed some weird looking large flies. After closer inspection it wasn’t just one fly, it was three! Two dance flies were mating and consuming a fly. So I had to document it with my camera and show it to you.
View the photos large to see more details of natures wonders.
Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera on June 24th, 2007. Click image for larger view.
Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera on June 24th, 2007. Click image for larger view.
Dance flies (Empididae) is a family of flies with over 3000 species. This is possibly Empis tesselata.
They are hunters that capture their prey with the sharp snout, as you can see on the pictures. The males swarm in small groups (thats how they got the name) and each male holds a fly. If a female should fly by, the males offer their prey to her. She chooses the best prey and mates with the male while sucking the fly dry.
Check out this picture of a sawfly eating an insect my other macro pictures here.
Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital single-lens reflex camera
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/11
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 35mm F3.5 Macro
Location: Laupstad (Andørja), Troms in northern Norway
Dramatic, intense even! Fantastic shots, outrageously well shot – and the subject matter – my goodness, all this goes on whilst most of us are unaware – incredible!
Fantastic post.
Cheers, Lavender of the birds & the beads
That should almost be X rated! Its very sharp, niec shot.
Very nice composition. and intimate shot. hehe.. nice place u got here.
Great photo!
Its sexy, yet dirty. Humans aren’t the only ones that get hungry during and after sex.
Nice photo. How did you meet the couple, in forest or in your garden??
I wonder do they have a cigarette after they have finished!!!
Cheers Mark
Very nice macro. Very sharp, and an interesting subject.
my gosh..that’s so eerie to look.never really a fan of mating flies!!
You like to watch…..thats not nice.
Excellent capture.
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all your photos are amazing, but this one is especially GREAT!!!!
Check out similar post at http://rwsphoto.blogspot.com/2007/12/housefly-sex-series-2.html
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I recently made a similar series:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=211607&id=628129918&l=6954318305
When I first saw a couple doing it, I was thinking it was just some weird kind of fluke or something.. but then I saw 3 couples of them doing the same thing!
I just had to look it up and found your post.
Nature sure has odd creatures. 😉
I love your high quality macro shots! Thanks for sharing 🙂