{"id":6243,"date":"2023-12-30T11:14:02","date_gmt":"2023-12-30T11:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=6243"},"modified":"2026-07-07T19:17:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T19:17:47","slug":"2023-12-stilt-legged-flies-caught-in-the-act-in-la-perla-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2023-12-stilt-legged-flies-caught-in-the-act-in-la-perla-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Wasp mimics caught in the act: Paparazzi moments in the macro world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Say hello to the genus <em>Scipopus<\/em>, a group of eccentric stilt-legged flies (family <em>Micropezidae<\/em>) that look like they are walking on toothpicks. Flaunting a black-and-red wardrobe, these flies mimic stinging wasps and rhythmically wave their front legs in the air to perfectly imitate twitching wasp antennae. But the weirdness doesn&#8217;t stop there. <em>Scipopus<\/em> flies double as a public transit system for the jungle&#8217;s tinier residents. In a bizarre symbiotic relationship known as phoresy, miniature pseudoscorpions attach themselves to the fly&#8217;s long hind legs, hitchhiking across massive distances. If you get close enough, you&#8217;ll also notice they flash brilliant, bright-white &#8220;socks&#8221; on their feet every time they wave their legs. I stumbled upon a pair of these lanky flies sharing an intimate moment, completely inseparable for quite some time. I happily capitalized on their distraction to snag some fantastic macro shots!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Say hello to the genus Scipopus, a group of eccentric stilt-legged flies (family Micropezidae) that look like they are walking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[488,466],"tags":[],"countries":[74,73],"order-category":[44,60,458],"class_list":["post-6243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saprophages","category-scavengers","countries-ecuador","countries-south-america","order-category-insects-flies","order-category-insects","order-category-insects-flies-stilt-legged-flies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6248,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions\/6248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6243"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=6243"},{"taxonomy":"order-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/order-category?post=6243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}