Phorid Flies on Green Lacewing Tiny Phorid Flies Riding Along with a Green Lacewing Lacewings are a Neuroptera, a group that includes the antlions (doodle bugs).  The larvae of lacewings look a lot like antlions, and are prdatory.  The adults of the green lacewing here, a Chrysopidae, are predatory as well, and often consume...

Unidentified Bibio Pupae Unidentified Bibio Pupae Bibionidae Larvae Bibionidae Larvae Bibionidae Head A Bibionidae Seperated from its Cluster April 25, 2011 Update I was kept on toes for this one, LOL, thanks Kevin! , but give me props for even thinking of trying to grow them through, and getting ANY to pupate. LOL. ...

Robber Fly With Cockroach Meal! The Meal, Probably A Wood Roach, P. virginica I was out photographing butterflies two summers ago, when I felt something kinda heavy- for a bee/fly or maybe wasp- that kind plopped down on my arm.  I have learned by now not to swat- ANYTHING.  After all I might be crushing a kick-butt photo,...

Common Midge Looks like my mornings are still being productive, and I’m seeing some unique cold tolerant creatures- STILL.  The common midges are familiar to some, in that they tend to show up in little swarms in on warm winter days.  Other forms, like this Diamesinae, might be found alone at this time of year.  This...

Handsome Flightless Snow Cranefly Handsome Flightless Snow Cranefly Handsome Flightless Snow Cranefly My flightless craneflies mating again this morning!  Dudes and dudettes, I am getting close to having alive in study, flightless snow craneflies for a longer time then in published studies.  IF this is your first view of these,...

Bibio Enjoying Wood Before Scooting Back Underground Two Spiracles on Tail End Tell Us its Bibio Bibio Cleaned and Posing In Bibio Beauty Bibio Front End, Head It was neat to read an account today of a discovery, whereby someone wondered if the algae that is in some salamander eggs, might be doing more.  It was already...

Scavenger Flies Mating Bizarre little flies shot mating.  These are Scavenger Flies, family Sepsidae (probably comes from a root for “Sepsis”=Septic, referring to their attraction to excrement).  An elongated shiny black fly with strange heads, that lay their egg on excrement or decaying matter where the larvae...

The Golden Dung Fly The Dung Fly family, the Scathophagids, is a large family 0f  “excrement-eating.”  No save with the genus name “Stcathophaga,” which meas “dung eating”  or the species name “stercoraria” which brings us t the Latin root meaning “of the dung.” ...

Dune Fly Even though many of the original inland barrens from Albany NY to Queensbury NY have been altered historicall, leveled, logged, the sands removed for use in making fine pottery- the major soils are sands from an ancient lake (Lake Albany) that drained aproximately 13K years ag0.  The plants and animlas that live in...

Leaf Miner Fly This photo is a bit blurry, really was stretching my camera’s limits with this fly at about 3 mm in length.  This came to my light during the summer, and I saw the outrageously pretty purple abdomen and bluish thorax right away.  This is an adult of a leaf -miner larvae, the eggs of this group of flies...