A portrait of a Gnat Ogre with lunch. This tiny robber fly was enjoying its midge lunch until I decided to shove my camera in it is face. Then it just like a puppy with a toy, it seemed to be showing off its prize.
Happy #FlyDay
I haven't posted for a while again. Life is crazy. So here's a fly I know nothing about. My guess is it's a hoverfly in the genus Quichuana (rat tailed maggot fly) but don't really know. I wonder if it is mimicking a Ceoloxys bee. It even has the hairy eyes.
Bohrfliegenarten fallen oft aufgrund ihrer interessanten Flügelmuster auf. Diese Campiglossa-Art ist mit ca. 3 mm sehr klein. Ihre madenförmigen Larven leben von und in Pflanzen.
Inaturalist tells me that both of these are quadrate snipe flies (Chrysopilus quadratus), but their coloration is very different. Does anyone know why? They both look like males, with their head-encompassing (holoptic) eyes. Is there just this much color variation, or have I mis-identified them?
Despite appearances, this photo wasn’t taken in a studio, but on a late afternoon walk with the sun low on the horizon and no flash at all: the sun was my flash, shining on from under my camera.
Nematoceran fly —aka mosquito or midge-like— sipping nectar, its head and paintbrush antennae (the size alone labels it as male: their purpose is to locate females) bobbing up and down as if listening to heavy metal. Wish I recorded a video.
How cool. I never managed to identify these maggots from a microbial mat in Yellowstone National Park. By comparing with the larvae of alkaline flies in the video, I see they also have spiky prolegs–perhaps members of the same family, since most dipterans don't have them at all.
Digging a bit, I have this other adjacent observation of adult flies walking on those waters https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28847765 labeled as Ephydridae ... they are likely related if not the same species.
The large hoverfly I see frequently, at least in Cambridge, is the yellow-haired sun fly, Myathropa florea https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/180250789 This one seems like a mimic as well, but its larvae grow on detritus in moisty ground.
Mystery midget: #iNaturalist auto-suggestion didn’t even guess the insect order correctly. Holds itself like a mosquito, but only measures about 2.5 mm. Found on a pebble beach by a white pine tree secondary forest.
Friday Flyday! Here's a male Nemotelus soldier fly from Texas who's got his eyes on you. And everything else. Pretty much a complete surveillance unit.
This image was taken with an iPhone SE 3rd gen, zoomed in 50%. I don’t know what software trickery is at play here but the resulting image is surprisingly vivid, sharp, and pleasant, and in focus.
Larvae of the chokecherry gall midge (Contarinia virginianiae) turn chokecherries into tasty and nutritious homes, enlarging them in the process. Open them up and voila! Orange fly babies! #FlyDay#Diptera#Cecidomyiidae#insect#gall#galls#flies