Gigantea Beefly - Balaana gigantea
Family Bombyliidae
This page contains pictures and information about Gigantea Beeflies that we found in
the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Female body length 15mm
Male
- This beefly is large in size. It has the dark brown thorax and black abdomen, with white short hairs on each side of thorax. There are the white triangle spots on each side of abdomen. Eyes are brown in colour with short white hairs along the edges connect with the neck. The dark patterns on wings are distinctive. .
- Male body length 15mm
- Found a number of them in Karawatha Forest Rocky Circuit near the hill top on sandy footpath form Oct to Nov 2008. They showed very strong territorial behaviour. After disturbed, they always flied back to the same spot and rest. When other flies came close, they always driven them away.
-
Female
- Saw a few of those female resting on sandy path on hill top in Anstead Forest on Nov 2009.
- Reference:
- 1. An evolutionary radiation of beeflies in semi-arid Australia: systematics of the Exoprosopini (Diptera: Bombyliidae) - Lambkin CL, Yeates DK & Greathead DJ, Invertebrate Systematics, 2003
