''Empis tessellata'' is a species of dance fly, in the

fly Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

family

Empididae __NOTOC__ Empididae is a family of flies with over 3,000 described species occurring worldwide in all the biogeographic realms but the majority are found in the Holarctic. They are mainly predatory flies like most of their relatives in the Empido ...

. It is included in the subgenus ''Euempis''.

Distribution

The species is distributed in most of Europe from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, in the east to the Middle East and Central Asia to Japan.

Habitat

These dance flies can be found on various plants on moist meadows, on forest edges, on clearings and lightly wooded areas.

Description

''Empis tessellata'' can reach a length of about and a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

of .Neil Helyer, Nigel D. Cattlin, Kevin C. Brow
Biological Control in Plant Protection: A Colour Handbook, Second Edition
/ref>Milan Chvála:
The Empidoidea (Diptera) of Fennoscandia and Denmark: Genus Empis.
III Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica Vol. 29. Brill Academic Publishers, 1994. pp. 24-25 These large dance flies have a strongly black bristled body. The long legs are varying in color, usually they are red-yellow with black thighs. The brown-tinged wings have dark brown veins and rusty-yellow costal margin. The head is small and almost spherical with black antennae, large brown eyes and a long pointed proboscis. The thorax is gray-black in ground color and carries three black longitudinal stripes. The abdomen is elongated and arched, marbled bronze-gray. The 3rd (last) antennal segment bears a two-segmented seta. The sexes are distinguishable by the size of their eyes. In the males, they are narrowly contiguous, widely separated in the females. ''Empis tessellata'' is the largest British ''Empis'' species, though there are other similar sized species in mainland Europe.

Biology

Adults can be seen from April to August. Apparently, only adult males are predatory on other insects, but also larvae are predatory. Adults mainly hunt Diptera or other small insects, but they also feed on the nectar of flowers. especially of

umbellifer Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

s. Before mating, the male catches prey to present as a gift to the female. Only then the mating takes place.Nature Spot
/ref> The creamy-yellow larvae live underneath the ground and in leaf litter.

Gallery

File: Empis tesselata, Minera Quarry, North Wales, June 2012 2 (16904350671).jpg, Side view File: Empis tesselata, Minera Quarry, North Wales, June 2012 (16698018227).jpg, Close-up of the head File: Empis tessellata on Scarbiosa.ogv, Feeding on "Scabiosa" species (video clip) File:Empis tessellata in copula.ogv, In copula (video clip)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2469727 Empis Asilomorph flies of Europe Insects described in 1794 Articles containing video clips