To any diptera or hymenoptera systematists out there: I was playing around with my new GUI account (whoa-- and I thought the internet was fun _before_ I could see the graphics 8-) looking for an image of a calliphorid (found one elsewhere) and came across the following URL: http://www.life.uiuc.edu/Entomology/insecthtmls/gifs/diptera.gif which is labelled as showing various diptera. For those of you with browsers who'd care to take a look, am I mistaken or is that not a honeybee pupa shown on the left immediately below the close-up frontal view of a (muscid?) fly face? Looks an awful lot like the drawings I've done myself of bee pupae except that the cocoon is awfully prominent-- maybe it's supposed to be a cut-away view of a dipteran puparium but that sure looks a lot like the subject has a propodeum-- which would rule it out as a dipteran. Maybe "Lar of the Flies" or someone would like to take a look... BTW if it were a honeybee the natural orientation of the pupa is with the ventral side up (back resting against the "floor" of its cell). Merry Xmas from Manti Claws, '\ /` ()() \/\ Conrad Berube ____ /`\ \\ ISLAND CROP MANAGEMENT / ; ; /` `\/'\\ _____________ 1326 Franklin Terrace ` /` `' \`-===========/~~\ Victoria, B.C. V8S 1C7 \ \ -^\ /\____/^^^~> (604)480-0223; fax: (604)656-8922 |/ '\ '\~~~~~~~~ email: [log in to unmask] '\ '\ \__\__ `` ``