{"id":10874,"date":"2019-08-14T10:24:47","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T15:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=10874"},"modified":"2019-08-14T10:44:54","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T15:44:54","slug":"stilt-legged-fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/stilt-legged-fly\/","title":{"rendered":"Stilt-legged fly"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greetings, BugFans,<\/p>\n

The BugLady had a \u201cStop the Presses\u201d moment as she was writing this week\u2019s BOTW. When she hiked down to the mailbox, she saw a fly that she had never seen before, from a family she\u2019s never seen before, skating over the top of a leaf, and she bumped it to the head of the line. She photographed it badly, but here\u2019s a good image.<\/a><\/p>\n

In last week\u2019s episode we considered a beetle that mimics a bumblebee; this is a fly that is imitating an ichneumon wasp<\/a> (and no one messes with wasps), and some of its relatives are ant-mimics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a Stilt-legged fly\/Small-footed fly in the family Micropezidae<\/em>, a family with only about 30 species in North America and some 600 species worldwide (they\u2019re a different bunch than the tiny, iridescent Long-legged flies\u00a0<\/a>in the family Dolichopodidae<\/em>). Stilt-legged flies are most diverse in the tropics, where their larvae are dung-dwellers. They\u2019re famous for raising their short, front pair of legs so that they look like antennae as the flies walk around<\/a>; their actual antennae are pretty short. They live in damp and dappled wetlands and woods. Kaufman, in his Field Guide to Insects of North America tells us to look for them \u201ccrawling slowly about the base of trees, or on low foliage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stilt-legged<\/p>\n

Micropezids feed on decaying organic matter or in plant roots as larvae (the larva of an Australian species lives in the water of a pitcher plant and eats decaying invertebrates that it finds there). Some adults are predaceous and others eat rotting fruits and droppings of birds or other animals. As a group, they fly below the radar, and there are a lot of gaps in our knowledge of their natural history.<\/p>\n

This stilt-legged fly, Rainieria antennaepes<\/em> (no common name), is the only Rainieria in North America. According to bugguide.net<\/a>, antennaepes refers to the fly\u2019s habit of passing off its legs as antennae. It\u2019s found east of the Rockies and into southern Canada.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, as it walked around, the fly would bow its head down toward the leaf surface<\/a>, allowing it to suck up food with its forward-facing, \u201cvacuum cleaner\u201d mouthparts, which look like a tiny gas mask (see the last picture at https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/dukeinsects\/insect-orders\/diptera\/taeniaptera-trivittata<\/a>).<\/p>\n

About its life history, the BugLady could find little – according to the website americaninsects.net<\/a>, \u201cLarvae often develop in decaying leaves or other rotting plant material. The pupa is made from the final larval skin, and so the pupa resembles the last larval instar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though parts of its life are a mystery, the BugLady found a number of videos featuring the adults. In the first, even though the BugLady has admired The Early Birder\u2019s great insect shots, the \u201csemaphore\u201d he refers to looks like grooming behavior to her https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ba3inwK11Ys<\/a>. Check out the video of a stilt-legged fly snacking on a bit of cheese here<\/a>, and this, from another of the \u201cBug of the Week\u201d series out there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BugLady had a \u201cStop the Presses\u201d moment as she was writing this week\u2019s BOTW. 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