More on Red-heads

A few blogs ago I noted the mimicry complex that seems to involve the Love Bugs, Plecia amplipennis. Well here is another candidate. It is a mosquito. This one is probably a species that feeds on plants nectar and not blood. Note the similarity in colour and pattern of the two flies.

The Love bug is really a fly, Plecia amplipennis.

This is a mosquito, Culicidae. Note the reddish thorax. My friend Graeme Cocks thinks it is probably the Golden Mosquito, Coquillettia xanthogaster. It looks a bit like the fly above. Does this imply some mimicry? Is there some form or protection for one or the other?

This is a lagriid beetle, a member of the tenebrionid clade of beetles. Many of these beetles produce very irritating fluids that are considered protective to the beetle. Some can even squirt highly acid juices at potential predators. Could this beetle be part of the Red-head mimicry complex?