[NatureNS] late March flies

Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:04:17 -0300
From: Stephen Shaw <srshaw@Dal.Ca>
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In October-November, we sometimes see the odd specimen of a little 
black "March
fly" usually perched on the white siding of the house.  Has anyone else been
seeing unusually large numbers of these flies this year?  I have a live 
trap in
the garden and it caught another 10 today, the third such hoard since 21
October.

These are small black flies ~8 mm long, in which the male has bilobed 
eyes with
a huge upper lobe used in swarm-mating behaviour, for spotting females above
which have flown up through the male swarm; the female's eyes are relatively
small.  These are flies from the family Bibionidae, from the "lower", older
half of the Diptera (Nematocera or long-horns), and key out easily to 
the genus
Bibio.  It is hard to get much further to the actual species of Bibio --
Bugguide.net doesn't have much to offer.  Does anyone happen to have 
identified
this late-emerging Bibio as to species?

The familiar name "March fly", in this case obviously inappropriate, seems to
have originated in UK.  One species there commonly emerges early in the 
year, a
sign that March has arrived, and with it, finally, Spring (would we could say
that here).
Steve
Halifax

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