Black Flower Wasp - Agriomyia sp.


Winged male 20mm, female 10mm

It is common to see a male Flower Wasp carrying a wingless female, with tail to tail attached, flying between flowers.



On Dec 2006, when we looking for the Sand Wasps on a sandy soil, we saw this male Flower Wasp it was searching for something under a dry leaf. It tried very hard for a long while, even did not care about our disturb.



We noticed something was hiding under within those small gravels.



We pushed the wasp apart, carefully remove the gravels and tried to see what it was. We saw a large black ant, or female Flower Wasp.



The female Flower wasp was wingless and dark bluish-brown in colour. It was trying to run away.



The male Flower Wasp quickly found the female and attached tail-to-tail with the female, then quickly flied and rested on a small plant.

From the observation, we believed the male Flower Wasp found the female wasp by sense of smell.

Reference:
1. Specimen Image Index - ICDB, ENTOMOLOGY AT DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WESTERN AUSTRALIA