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Index of Subjects Hi Murray, That's an intriguing observation. Roughly what temperature would it have been when you saw this, below zero? I'm interested generally in flies and didn't realize that any adults of such groups were around at these temperatures, or at all in February. As a sort of reference point, I recall reading that the UK low-temperature record for an insect "behaving" was -5°C for a bristletail (wingless insect) that someone observed sitting on a seaside rock in Wales, whereupon it promptly ran away. I found that it takes a -7°C surface temperature (aluminium)to immobilize the same species that we also get here (they hibernate over winter here in sea cliff crevices). Flies like other insects are cold-blooded, and many cell systems like important enzymes have temperature optima and slow down and eventually shut off when the temperature drops, so the animals then can't perform at all, e.g. fly around. I think that 'kelp flies' is a name usually restricted to the family Coelopidae, with only a few species here in the genus Coelopa. The Manual of Nearctic Diptera doesn't mention anything about year-round adults or low temperature behaviour, though that's not the main thrust of MND so perhaps this doesn't mean much. Maybe all this is well-known locally here -- has anyone else seen these flies flying around recently, for instance while birding around the high tide line? They tend to fly in small low clouds around piles of seaweed washed up there, in summer. If anyone has info and has an idea of what the temperature was at the time, it would be interesting to hear about it. Do birders ever set out armed with digital thermometers, now quite inexpensive? Steve, Halifax **************************** Quoting dowitcher <dowitcher@eastlink.ca>: > on sunday at clam point i had kelp flys flying around in among all this snow. > > Murray R Newell > Cape Sable Island > Nova Scotia
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