Lovebug
Location: Mid-Missouri
October 26, 2010 12:50 pm
A friend of mine suggested that I submit some of my photos to your site (love the site by the way). I found these a few days ago all over the Amur Honeysuckle berries that line my woods. I believe it to be a Lovebug and they are sure interesting looking creatures. These were the first that I have seen this year
Signature: Nathanael Siders

March Fly

Hi Nathaneal,
This is definitely a March Fly in the family Bibionidae which includes the Love Bugs in the genus Plecia, but we haven’t the necessary skills to identify the genus or species.  That would require an expert and most likely a physical specimen.  We can say that she is a female because the eyes of the male are much larger.   Presumably, if he could speak, he would inform his mate that they are:  “All the better to see you with, my dear.”  You may see some additional examples of March Flies on BugGuide.

March Fly

Flying nectar loving bugs
Location:  Sydney, Australia
October 14, 2010 5:58 pm
Two that I photographed yesterday around a flowering bush in Sydney, Australia.
None of my friends can identify either of them and so far I’ve been unable to identify them on-line.
Signature:  Mike Gordon

Possibly a Sawfly

Dear Mike,
We wish your photograph better illustrated the features of the antennae of your second insect, but we believe this may be some species of Sawfly.  Sawflies are in the same insect order as wasps and bees, but they do not sting.  There is one photograph on the Brisbane Insect website that looks quite similar to the individual in your photograph.  We found another page on the Brisbane Insect website containing that photograph that identifies the insect as the Bramble Sawfly, Philomastix xanthophilus, though the head appears to be different from your individual, though that may be due to the blossom obscuring the details in your photograph.  The Pergidae of the World website has a page on the genus Philomastix that contains this fascinating information:  “Females of Philomastix spp. pierce the leaf from above and place the egg on the underside of the leaf (Macdonald & Ohmart 1993). All species of this genus exhibit maternal care. Females stand near their egg mass and young larvae or near the leaf petiole with the head directed to the stem and when disturbed they shake and create a buzzing sound with their wings (Macdonald & Ohmart 1993, Naumann & Groth 1998). This behaviour lasts until they die. Larvae feed during daylight hours (Macdonald & Ohmart 1993).“  More information on North American Sawflies can be found on BugGuide.

Ed. Note:  Correction
October 22, 2010
New information contained in a newly submitted email with better images leads us to believe this is some species of March Fly in the family Bibionidae.

Small orange and black bug sucking on nectar of goldenrod
October 6, 2009
Hi. I came across this bug at my home in Sayville, New York. There were many individuals sucking the nectar from some goldenrod flower heads. I have never seen this bug before. What is this?
Derek Rogers
Sayville, New York

March Flies

Hi Derek,
These are March Flies in the family Bibionidae.  We believe they are Dilophus spinipes, a species represented on BugGuide with several images taken  in New York a few days ago.  Those specimens were also pictured feeding on yellow flowers.  For some reason, we are unable to access any additional information on BugGuide this morning.  March Flies often appear in a very small window of time, and they appear in great numbers.  The infamous Love Bugs from the Southern States are a prime example.

March Fly

1   I like This

A scary looking fly, what is it??
August 20, 2009
I was camping in the uk last week and noticed a few of these strange looking flies, I thought nothing more of it until I have noticed very nasty bites on my ankles and my head, I was wondering if you could identify it for me, and tell me if i need to worry!
Karl Chapman
Derbyshire, UK

Heather Fly

Hi Karl,
We hesitate to tell you not to worry, but you need not worry about this insect.  We believe this is a March Fly in the family Bibionidae.  We are going to leave actual species identification to a Dipterist, but we found several UK species with similar looking photos.  There is a Fever Fly, Dilophus femoratus, that is shown in close-up on the Bio-Images Virtual Field Guide (UK) page that looks close.  A closer match would be Biblio johannes, called a St. Mark’s Fly, on the same Bio-Images website.  Though the color doesn’t match, the spine at the joint of the foreleg matches another St. Mark’s Fly, Biblio marci, also pictured on the Bio-Images website. The Nature Observer’s Scrapbook page has this to say about St. Mark’s Flies:  “St Mark’s fly owes it’s common name to its annual habit of appearing around St Mark’s day, 25th April.
It seems odd to me that an insect as substantial as this should be deemed to be a ‘midge’. This is the largest of the 18 strong Bibionidae family of black day flying midges. The females are about 13mm in length and the males about 10mm.
It is slow and cumbersome in flight with its legs dangling clumsily – and that is while it is on it’s own. When they are mating, it is not unusual to find them in even more unwieldly flight, still coupled together with the larger female dragging the hapless male to the next resting place.
The differences between male and female can clearly be seen in the upper image. The female is significantly larger but has a much smaller head with smaller eyes set on either side of the head. The male on the other hand has large eyes touching each other.
The single, strong, forward pointing spine on the outside of the tibia of the front legs (highlighted in the lower image) is an identifying feature of the Bibio family, helping to distinguish it from the similar Dilophus family – to which the fever-fly (see below) belongs.
The conformation of the wings is such that when folded, one wing completely overlays the other.
It breeds underground and the larvae feed largely on decaying vegetation but are also blamed for damage to crop roots.
One ‘oddity’ of Bibio species is that the larval structure appears to be more primitive than the adult fly conformation would lead one to expect, indicating some evolutionary aberration in their development.”  Based on the head, this fly is a female since males have much larger eyes.

Heather Fly

Clarification from Karl
Hi Karl:
There are apparently 13 species of ‘March Flies’ in the genus Bibio listed for Great Britain. From what I can tell the closest match to yours is B. pomonae; the Heather Fly. It was the only one I could find with red colouring on the legs that doesn’t extend beyond the femur. The peak of the flying season in GB is July-August so the timing would be right. The species is very widely distributed in Europe, Iceland to Russia and down to the Mediterranean. According to some references it prefers higher elevations, hence the common name; others give hedgerows as the preferred habitat. The larvae feed on roots and the adults eat nectar, so I suppose your bites remain a mystery. For reference you could check out http://www.diptera.info/photogallery.php?photo_id=865 or http://www.commanster.eu/commanster/Insects/Flies/SuFlies/Bibio.pomonae.html. Nice photos bye the way. Regards. K