Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Dust speck flies

From one extreme to the other. Yesterday, I was looking at huge cliffs beside the highway; today it's the tiniest of the tiny companions at home.

I had been reading: fine print and fuzzy illustrations on my Kindle. I was resting my eyes staring at the empty wall, when I realized that a speck of dust seemed to have wings. I grabbed the camera: it sees better than I do. And when that dust speck turned out to be a fly, I went searching for more.

Tiny fly, 2mm.

This one's a bit bigger. Gall midge, Cecidomyiidae spp.

And this is a small mosquito. With cross-hatched wings.

The largest of them all, 1 cm. long, wings and all. Dead, in a spider's web. Look at the wings; the curves and the spots.

#UPDATE: Identified by BugGuide as a Hairy-eyed crane fly, Tricyphona spp.

And this was the tiniest; a bathroom moth fly, under 2 mm. long.

For variety, there was also a tiny click beetle.

I occasionally see a running speck, a spider out hunting. Or a cellar spider, all legs and a pinprick body. And I wonder what they could be finding to eat. This is it; dust speck flies.

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Paso de un extremo al otro. Ayer, miraba acantilados gigantes al lado de la carretera; hoy, los más pequeños de mis compañeritos en casa.

Había estado leyendo un ensayo en mi Kindle, en letra fina y con fotos algo borrosas; ahora descansaba los ojos mirando hacia la pared. Y me di cuenta que una manchita de polvo parecía tener alas. Saqué la cámara, que ve mejor que yo. Y cuando ese "polvo" resultó ser una mosca, di la vuelta buscando más.

Fotos:

  1. Esa primera mosca; 2mm. de largo.
  2. Otra mosca, un poco más grande, un cecidómino.
  3. Esta es un zancudo chico.
  4. Y la más grande de todas; esta medía como 1 cm. Ya muerta, comida de arañas. Pero observa esas alas; las curvas y las manchas.
  5. Y la más pequeña; una polilla de baño, Clogmia allbipunctata.
  6. Había también un escarabajo, uno de los saltapericos.
De vez en cuando veo un puntito negro que corre; una arañita cazando. O un fólcido con sus patas largísimas y el cuerpo apenas del tamaño de una cabeza de alfiler. Y se me ocurre preguntar —¿qué hallan para comer? — Pues, esto es; moscas tamaño polvo.

2 comments:

  1. The second fly is a gall midge (Cecidomyiidae). The third one that you describe as "the size of a small mosquito" is, indeed, a small mosquito.

    ReplyDelete

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