Goniurellia tridens - a 3-in-one insect

 
Now and then - more now than then - we encounter evidence of the astonishing gifts of the
Internet. Needless to say, just as frequently we are bombarded by evidence to
the contrary. That issue will endure. 
Here is one such gift, from Andrew Revkin of The New York Times:
David Rothenberg’s engaging reflection on
evolution and aesthetics, Survival of the Beautiful,
came to mind as this amazing photograph, taken in
Dubai by Peter Roosenschoon, a conservation officer at the Dubai Desert
Conservation Reserve, circulated on Twitter (thanks to Ziya Tong, a host of Daily
Planet, a Discovery program in Canada)
 
[David Rothenberg's extraordinary book, Survival
of the Beautiful, is more than an "engaging reflection."
Here is a review in Scientific American by Lucas Brouwers, a Dutch journalist.]




I did a bit of sifting and found more photos from Roosenschoon on the UAE
Birding Web site and a very nice description of what’s known about this species
in The National, an English language Emirates newspaper. Here’s an excerpt from
the fascinating piece, by Anna Zacharias:

[A] closer examination of the transparent wings of Goniurellia tridens reveals
a piece of evolutionary art. Each wing carries a precisely detailed image of an
ant-like insect, complete with six legs, two antennae, a head, thorax and
tapered abdomen.

“The image on the wing is absolutely perfect,” says Dr. Brigitte Howarth, the
fly specialist at Zayed University [link] who first discovered G. tridens in
the UAE.

It is a member of tephritidae, a family – there are two – of 5,000 species of
fruit flies whose colorful markings have earned them the name “peacock flies.”

In the UAE alone, 27 picture wing species are known. Some have wings bearing
simple shapes but others, like G. tridens, are far more complex.

Dr Howarth first saw G. tridens on an oleander shrub in northern Oman. “I was
looking at the stem of the leaves and I noticed that there were some insects
crawling around. When I sort of honed in I started to notice what I thought was
a couple of ants moving around.”

At first she suspected an infestation on the fly’s wings. “But it was so
symmetrical that I thought, ‘oh this is not possible’. When I got it under the
microscope I realized that these were insects painted onto the wings.”
Editor's note:  Here is a brief characterization of David Rothenberg:

David Rothenberg is a rarity--an actual polymath--and his writing, like the music he
plays, reveals an extraordinary mixture of curiosity, intelligence, and
playfulness. Tracing complex ideas that link consciousness, human spirit, and
creativity within the framework of Darwinian theory leads to the sort of book
you would expect from a man who makes music with whales and cicadas. Where does
the impetus for the making of art and music reside? How does that fit into an
evolutionary scheme? Read this book and enter into Rothenberg's world. You will
be rewarded with an exploration of these questions that is both entertaining
and revelatory. 
        -- David Ross, 
director emeritus, Whitney Museum of American Art