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Photo#8220
Fly

Fly
Auburn, Alabama, USA
October 23, 2004
About 1/4-3/8" in length. I believe the halteres on this specimen make it a fly. My guess is that it is in Family Sciaridae, perhaps a dark-winged fungus gnat. The spider on the right of the specimen eventually caught the fly.

Sciaridae
I think you're right that this is in Sciaridae. I've been told the shape of that Y-shaped vein in the wing is distinctive for the two families of fungus gnats (Sciaridae [dark-winged fungus gnats] and Mycetophilidae [fungus gnats]) - at least compared to other gnat or midge-like families. According to Borror, Triplehorn, and Johnson (1) a distinctive venation character for Sciaridae is that the two veins near the leading edge of the wing are both straight, as can be seen in your photo. There are probably more general differences between the families that I'm not aware of, but your photo shows the veins very clearly.

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