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Photo#498219
Nematocerous fly - family help? - Culicoides

Nematocerous fly - family help? - Culicoides
Sierra Foothills REC, Browns Valley, California, USA
May 1, 2009
Size: 2.2mm
Does anyone have pointers on which family this fly might be in? I'm interested in its trophic role, if I can figure it out.

Moved
Moved from Biting Midges. I'm not certain but I think I've ruled out the similar genera.

Most Culicoides females are blood suckers, not necessarily human blood suckers.

 
That's super-interesting! I'
That's super-interesting! I'd wondered about it and another morphotype that sometimes had what looked like a blood-filled abdomen in my samples. They were vacuumed from a field that excludes cattle for most of the year, though there are lots of native vertebrates like deer and rodents around, and there are cattle in the area.

Moved
Moved from "Nematocera" (Non-Brachycera).

Do any of the feet have large claws and/or empodia? Can you tell whether the M vein is forked before or after the RM crossvein?

 
Thanks for the help so far.
Thanks for the help so far.
Very unfortunately, I don't have the specimen anymore; the building is infested with cockroaches and they recently raided my collection. I'm super-frustrated with it, especially for reasons like this. There are no tarsal bits or wings left on the pin, and the other picture I have doesn't help with those characters. The front leg, bent backwards in this picture, looks like it *could* have an empodium. I can't distinguish a crossvein. Would these characters help give evidence for the family, or for subfamily or genus?

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