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March Flies and Lovebugs

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bug love

Now there’s MORE of them!
Hi again–
Wrote a few days ago when I was trying to identify this fly/wasp like bug. They were flying about in the hundreds–well now they are flying around nearer the thousands… …and today I saw a few pairs mating on the driveway. Noticed that one gender has a large head, whilst the other has a rather tiny one. I won’t venture near guessing which is male or female. They are not much more than 3/8″ long.
J Cannon
North San Diego County, CA

Hi J,
These are March Flies in the family Bibionidae and they are right on time. BugGuide has numerous images of mating pairs. The big eyed male has the bigger head. According to BugGuide, the larvae feed on decaying organic matter. There are several genera of March Flies, and we are not sure which your specimens belong to. The infamous Florida Love Bugs, Plecia nearctica, get so plentiful, and are often found copulating, so there is much information available online including on Wikipedia.

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4. Mating March Flies (June 1, 2009)
5. March Flies on Goldenrod (October 7, 2009)