Diptera : Villa cingulata of the Bombyliidae family.

[nomad]

Diptera : Villa cingulata of the Bombyliidae family.


Visiting a large area of unimproved meadows in Wiltshire with a galaxy of wild flowers my best find was Villa cingulata (Meigen, 1804) of the Bombyliidae family. This is a rare and local species both in the UK and in mainland Europe. The only British records of this Bee-fly mimic are from a few chalk downland and rich meadows sites. The meadows where I found my example are calcareous lowland grassland over-lying gravel deposits in North Wiltshire. I only observed one on my visit, the overcast cool weather was not ideal for flying insects.

The life history of Villa cingulata seems to be unknown and it is possible that the larvae like those of Bombus species may be parasitic on the larvae of Solitary Bees in their nests.




The Biotope of Villa cingulata.




Villa cingulata. Wiltshire June 2016.

[isidro]

Villa are a nightmare, at least here in Spain... soooo many species, many identical and very few can be identified by image!

[nomad]

We have only a three species of the genus Villa in the UK and the others are just as rare but are found in entirely different habitats to cingulata.

[isidro]

I guess that global warming will make Villa more common in UK every year...

[nomad]

You are right.  After a long period when there were no records, new localities have been recently found for this species in the UK. See www.brc.ac.uk/soldierflies-and-allies/sites/www.brc.ac.uk.soldierflies-and-allies/files/newsletter/Soldierflies%20newsletter%201.pdf

[nomad]

Villa cingulata in the Cotswold Hills.

I was lucky enough to photograph the scarce Villa cingulata recently in limestone grassland of the Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire. There is a good population at one NT site here. Although this species is known to visit flowers, the ones I observed were all flying low to ground among the herbage. I believe the images here are of females, which have more abdomen pale stripes, and the one shown previously that I photographed in 2016 in a Wilts meadow (see above) is certainly a male. There was a few of the smaller males about but due to the hot weather, they flew low to the ground without resting. Notice that the female in one of the images, resting on the flower= Salad burnet, Sanguisorba minor, is caught in the act of dropping an egg, almost certainly near a solitary bees nest.

Watching them , it is amazing to think these bee-flies were were thought to have disappeared from the Cotswold Hills during the 1930s and have recolonized a few sites, being first seen again in 2000. Villa cingulata mirrors somewhat the butterfly Lysandra bellargus, which became extinct in the Cotswolds in 1962 and which spread back into those limestone hills at the start of the new millennium. Both the bee-fly and the butterfly need short turf to survive, which certainly shows that if you manage the habitat in a suitable way, it is not impossible for insects to return once more to their original location.

Villa cingulata females and habitat, Limestone grassland.

[wollastoni]

Great pictures !

For sure, habitat preservation in the key in Europe like in the tropics.
In Europe, our few remaining humid zones should be highly protected.

[nomad]

Thank you Olivier for your comments.   I agree habitat protection is the key but many habitats in the UK are only kept rich in insects by good management of that habitat. Many insects have adapted to man made habitats here over thousands of years where there was traditional grazing and coppicing.