A Field Guide to the North Side of Old Mill Hill, Atlantic Mine, MI
Archive for the ‘Diptera’ Category.
Last Saturday (Jan. 12), we had all just stepped outside the door when S_ said, “Hey, there’s a bug in the snow!” It was this little fellow, who was merrily scampering across the surface of the snow just like he knew what he was doing:
The Fly
The first picture I posted in the arthropod project was a blurry image of what was, probably, a housefly. Here is a much better picture, which even shows the wing veins, which make it possible for me to say that it is, probably, a housefly [1]
Well, obviously, since it was in the house, making a nuisance of itself, then of *course* it was a housefly. The only question is whether it is the “real” housefly, Musca domestica, or just some related fly that got into the house. I think it is the real thing, based on comparing some diagrams of wing venation that Bug Guide connected to, so we’ll go with it. Supposedly you can tell if it is male or female depending on the space between the eyes, but there are surprisingly few pictures of houseflies on Bug Guide[2], and I don’t really have much to compare it to.
Well, this one has disturbing implications:
We had a sudden infestation of these flies in the house, to the point that we had to vacuum them off of the windows:
And the black flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly no matter where you go
I’ll die with the black fly a Pickin’ my bones
In North Ontar-i-o-i-o, In North Ontar-i-o
-Wade Hemsworth, “The Black Fly Song”[1]
And here we have a “black fly”, family Simuliidae, also known as “buffalo gnats” (either because of their humped back, or because they tormented buffalo. Maybe both). This one was on our kitchen window, and is evidently fairly old, judging by the tattered trailing edge of the wings.
An Example of Convergent Evolution
This robber fly (subfamily Asilinae, I think[1]) was hanging out on our mulberry bush. It didn’t move when S. broke off the branch and brought it inside, and I actually thought it was dead while I was photographing it. But then, after getting several good pictures, it suddenly flew off. It was the most cooperative subject I’ve had since the millipede (and the dead ones, of course). These are carnivorous flies that prey on other insects. I suppose they would be capable of biting people, too, but I’ve never had one try to bite me.
Come in to my parlor
said the spider
to the fly
So, what is this all about anyway? Here’s the deal: We own 9 acres of property, and I’m going to try to document every macroscopic arthropod I can find on it. This includes insects, spiders, other arachnids, crustaceans, and pretty much anything I find that has an exoskeleton. The plan is to post at least one species every week, with photographs and a description both of how I found it and what I think it is. I expect this project to take some years, especially if I can manage to photograph all the eensy little guys that live in the leaf litter. So, in the spirit of having to start somewhere, let’s begin with this one:
