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BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008
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Photos from the last gathering (Minnesota 2007)

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Photo#129710
Picture-Winged Fly - Callopistromyia annulipes

Picture-Winged Fly - Callopistromyia annulipes
New York City, Central Park, New York, USA
July 20, 2007
Callopistromyia annulipes? This fly was patrolling back and forth along a section of wooden fence rail. He occasionally signaled while patrolling, as in the first shot. As I got closer, he stopped patrolling and seemed to signal at me. This is the point where in the past others of his species have taken off. This time, he suddenly wheeled almost 180 degrees, turning his rear to me. Second shot. An intruder had landed on the rail about 30 inches away. These are tiny flies and this is still far apart. Third shot is of the intruder. They did not close the distance at all, but both signaled vigorously for a few seconds, then the first fly turned again and ran directly away from the intruder, defeated, I thought. Actually he ran less than 12 inches to a fence post, climbed up a few inches, not quite to the top, wheeled, and began signaling again. After a few seconds of signaling back, the intruder fled. Trying to get a close-up of the "victor", I spooked him. Various interpretations of this interaction are possible.

Images of this individual: tag all
Picture-Winged Fly - Callopistromyia annulipes Picture-Winged Fly - Callopistromyia annulipes Picture-Winged Fly - Callopistromyia annulipes

BugGuide practice.
If this species is confirmed I will delete the third photo (if I can), since it is not the same individual. I thought it would be good to show the face-off.

 
I'd let it be.
It is fun and interesting, plus you've made it clear this is a different individual. Oh, and you can easily delete it. (Maybe I shouldn't have said that!)

 
OK
I will do what comes so easily to me, nothing.

Interesting series
Nicely photographed and narrated. The intruder has sort of a Tom Turkey look, probably due to camera angle. Thanks for posting!

 
Thanks, Ron
I would have had better photos(or more usable ones) if I had not tried to use autofocus.The moving wings completely defeated the system. For the next signaling flies, it's manual focus for me.

 
Manual focus
Good tip. I've had autofocus problems with semi-transparent critters, and generally use manual focus.

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