Slurp

A long-tongued horse fly drinks from a flower in Arizona's Chiricahua mountains

A long-tongued horse fly takes a sip of nectar in Arizona's Chiricahua mountains.

100% crop of the same image.

100% crop of the same image.

photo details: Canon 65mm MP-E 1-5x  macro lens on a Canon EOS 20D

ISO 100, f/13, 1/250 sec, flash diffused through tracing paper

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100% crop?? Looks like there's still a small percentage left.

By James C. Trager (not verified) on 31 Dec 2008 #permalink

Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either, but that's standard terminology for a tightly cropped image represented at the original resolution. In other words, I didn't shrink or re-size the image before cropping it in.

Wow. You, sir, are the man. (I am often moved to leave this comment on your blog, but it seems kinda silly so I usually don't. But this...)

Hi Alex,

What's the scientific name for this thing? The only info I can find for "long-tongued horse fly" is Philoliche aethiopica in South Africa.

Gorgeous photos - I admire your talent!

regards--ted

Ted- I wish I knew. I'm not even sure that it's really a Tabanid, although with those antennae I'm not sure what else it could be. Perhaps one of the fine diptera bloggers from NCSU will stop in and give us a hint...

Esenbeckia, probably E. delta.

It, like almost all other long-tongued horse flies, is in the Pangoniinae, the sister group to the rest of the family. Horseflies with more than 5 annulations on their antennal flagellum (postpedicel) are all pangoniines.

Thanks, Keith. I had thought it might be close to this thing. I wasn't really aware of the subfamily before - looks like we've got a few eastern species I can be on the lookout for.