Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Little fly with splendid antennas
Posted by pierred on 10-04-2006 20:47
#1
Hello,
Found yesterday this beautiful little fly with splendid antennas :
(3 mm, 10 April 2006, Paris).
Posted by Nikita Vikhrev on 10-04-2006 21:48
#2
I think ? Chironomidae. But I can?t exclude possibility of Chaoboridae which I?ve never seen.
Posted by Paul Beuk on 10-04-2006 22:41
#3
I think it is Ceratopogonidae. I think the male antennae in Chironomidae are truely 'plumose', whereas those in Ceratopogonidae may have long hars but these are more together, like the tip of a brush.
Posted by Robert Heemskerk on 10-04-2006 22:56
#4
Could these 'plumose' be wet?, because of water(rain)?
Then the hairs will stick together!?
greeting, Robert
Edited by Robert Heemskerk on 10-04-2006 22:57
Posted by pierred on 11-04-2006 05:29
#5
Thanks to all of you.
Nikita: the antennas are really very different. But when I took the picture, I thought this was one of them. It is only when sorting the pictures on the computer that I noticed the antennas.
Robert: it was a normal dry weather.
Paul: the "tip of a brush" concept is clearly adequate. If you want to include this picture in the gallery, please feel free to do it.
Edited by pierred on 11-04-2006 05:31
Posted by Paul Beuk on 11-04-2006 08:28
#6
No, the antennae are not wet, that is just the way they are, and, yes, nice idea to put it in the Gallery. In fact, it is already there. :)
Posted by pierred on 12-04-2006 06:12
#7
Hello,
When searching on the Web, I could not find any pictures of the males. I think the explanation lies in the fact that the males feed on flowers and the female are hematophagous and are more easily detected, of course.
On the other hand, I got two other pictures of the same fly yesterday. It must also be their time.
Posted by totipotent on 12-04-2006 06:22
#8
pierred wrote:
Hello,
When searching on the Web, I could not find any pictures of the males. I think the explanation lies in the fact that the males feed on flowers and the female are hematophagous and are more easily detected, of course.
On the other hand, I got two other pictures of the same fly yesterday. It must also be their time.
Pierre,
Could you please post those, too? I am not really convienced that it's a Ceratopogonid. It would be great to see its abdomen.
Posted by Jan Willem on 12-04-2006 10:16
#9
What you can see of the wing venation seems to support Paul's opinion.
Posted by pierred on 13-04-2006 07:16
#10
totipotent wrote:
Could you please post those, too? I am not really convienced that it's a Ceratopogonid. It would be great to see its abdomen.
Here is the first one (on Aucuba flower):
Posted by pierred on 13-04-2006 07:21
#11
And here is the second one :
Posted by pierred on 13-04-2006 07:59
#12
Yet another one :
Posted by Paul Beuk on 13-04-2006 08:31
#13
With the second new image I rest my case for Ceratopogonidae...
Posted by Jan Willem on 13-04-2006 08:33
#14
Yes, no doubt at all! Paul is right.
Posted by pierred on 13-04-2006 14:55
#15
Hello,
On the third picture, one can see that the antenna has in fact three parts: an outer light fan, a central leaf-like part and an inner rod bearing tiny elements.
Posted by Paul Beuk on 13-04-2006 15:17
#16
The antennae have the typical shape of the Nematocera (multi-segmented, each segment bead-like), but the first segmnet is strongly swollen compagered to the other ones. The first segments here are long plumose, the terminal ones have very few hairs. The hairs closest to the base of the antennae are spread out (the outher light fan), the later ones form the brush-like bundle (leaf-like part) and the tip appears to be bare (inner rod bearing tiny elelments).
Posted by pierred on 20-04-2023 07:00
#17
This thread had been opened also on our French forum and people ask me to bump it here to see whether the conclusion would still be the same after so many years.
Posted by Matzke-Hajek on 20-04-2023 11:45
#18
The first picture has already been posted 12 years ago. It is in the photo gallery as taken on 15.07.2011:
https://diptera.info/photogallery.php?photo_id=24
Anyway, Dasyhelea flavifrons (male) seems to be a very good guess. The species is estimated as 'not rare' in Germany - just underrecorded.
Greetings - Günter
Posted by pierred on 20-04-2023 20:43
#19
Thanks for this addition.
The date of the photo in the gallery is probably false.
If everybody agrees, I could ask Paul to correct the date and the label.
Posted by John Carr on 20-04-2023 20:55
#20
I would not try to put a species name on this fly from a photo.
Dasyhelea is a difficult genus. For some of the characters used, see
Dominiak, Patrycja. 2012. Biting midges of the genus
Dasyhelea Kieffer (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Poland. Polish Journal of Entomology 81:211-304. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10200-012-0009-8