Delhi Sands Flower Loving Fly

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Rhaphiomidas terminates abdominalis better known as the Delhi Sands Fly, is mention as an endangered species. According to the American Museum of Natural History, the species was listed as an Endangered Species in 1993, and only five populations were known to have existed (AMNH).

The Delhi Sands Fly, was the seventeenth insect but the first fly to be protected by the Endanger Species Act of 1973 (AMNH). The natural history of the Delhi Sands Fly consists of numerous particulars such as, the fly was found only in small parts of San Bernardino and Riverside California counties, located at the eastern edge of the Los Angeles Basin in areas of fine sandy soil, known as Delhi series sand. This species live in sparsely vegetated sand dunes and are flower-loving flies who feeds off nectar and can hovers like a hummingbird. It is also one of the largest flies in the world which measure an inch long.

The adults are active in the months of August and September during which they feed, mate and lay their eggs. Female Delhi Sands flies has a long ovipositor and lays her eggs an inch or two beneath the soil under the shade of shrubs. The eggs hatch in around eleven to twelve days, larvae develop entirely below the ground and are probably predaceous.

The Delhi Sands Fly fits into the eco system because it feeds on nectar and mimics the pollinating behavior of hummingbirds and butterflies. It is possible that the Delhi Sands Fly transfer pollen from an anther to the stigma of a flower. The population is important for this individual species at large because without an adequate population of the Delhi Sands Fly the pollinating of some specific plants that the insects took nectar from, are no longer in existence.

Although the Delhi Sand Flower Loving Fly, delayed the construction of the San Bernardino Medical Center in California, it also affected the original hospital site which had to be move two-hundred and fifty feet away form the original site. Also eight of the sixty-four acres have been set aside to preserve the flies' habitation, currently the site is surrounded by a chain link fence, posted "No Trespassing".

The City of San Bernardino has already spent $3,790,199 in mitigation fees and financing a five-year study on the flies'. Construction has also been halted on a subdivision in nearby Fontana, California, because the fly lives on some of that property. But the most costly of all is the delay in a massive industrial development, known as the Agua Mansa Enterprise Zone, which was to provide 20,000 jobs over the next fifteen years to the community. Although this article was dated, February 14, 1997 and April 4, 1997, numerous changes have occurred since then.

September 15, 2002 the federal government pledge One-million dollars to help create a habitat for Delhi Sands fly habitats in Fontana. This is not absolutely an essential answer to the problem but it prevents the City of San Bernardino from filing bankruptcy. It should be understood that the Environmental Species Act must stand its ground on the decision of protecting this species or any other species. Money invested by landowners is usually lost in cases where ESA has been established. But by the government investing money for this habitat, it can be seen as a friendly jester, but no one really knows what the government might do next.

In conclusion, "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." This famous quotation came from the book, Animal Farm and it remind me that some animals have to be protected more so then others, because of their usefulness in nature, this protection is provided through the ESA. The appropriate actions were taken in relation to the Delhi Sands Fly and the contractors and city official obeyed the Environmental Species Act of 1973. Although it should matter that this species was fought for, I'm aware that very little information has been written about the Delhi Sands fly and their usefulness to nature. Being able to explain the existence of animals, insects, and plants that are protected by the ESA would better help individual to understand the act and why it has to be enforced.

References American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) Orwell, George, Animal Farm, Literature in English A NOVEL of SATIRE.

U.S. officials pledge $1 million for Delhi Sands fly habitat in Fontana .