“…Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive–it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?”
– L G Montgomery, ‘Anne of Green Gables’
In fact, I think I saw three of them. All hanging around on Hogweed flowers; one on his own and the other two arguing about who saw the Hogweed flower first and therefore had the right to sit in the middle of it.
What I think I saw were Twist-Winged Parasite Flies (Ectophasia crassipennis). These flies are endoparasitoids on various species of bug, not least the shieldbugs that I’ve learned so much about in the last couple of years. The adult flies lay their eggs on the bug and when the larvae hatch, they burrow into the body of the bug, munching away and killing their host. Doing some reading, I discovered that bugs parasitised by this fly increase their size to provide sufficient nutrients for the growing larvae (which are rather bigger than you might expect in a relatively small host!), suggesting they are able to control their host’s metabolism in some way.
This is a relatively new species in the UK, with the first record dating to 2019. It has been spotted in the Brecks (the area of Norfolk I live in) since 2023. A lovely surprise when I thought I was just going to be peering at a hoverfly. I mean, I say ‘lovely’, but in a sort of gruesome kind of way.
Suitable for Halloween I guess!
absolutelynotnormal 