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Photo#97485
Fly? - Elachiptera

Fly? - Elachiptera
Houston, Harris County, Texas, USA
March 7, 2007

Moved
Moved from Oscinellinae.

Elachiptera
Most of our Elachiptera are much darker, but there is a small group of yellow species in the southern US.

Moved
Moved from Frit Flies.

Moved
Moved from Flies.Nothing ever gets ID'ed in the unidentified flies, hope you don't mind the move.

 
Oh ho
Good to know. Should I put mine with springtails?

Check Vinegar Flies (Drosophilidae)
I'm pretty sure that's it, but I've blown IDs on these before. Definitely a fly, and a cute one at that.

See that thing that looks like a little pad between the second and third legs? (I think it's called haltes.) Anyway, that signifies the absence of a second pair of wings and indicates a fly, just about the only insect with two instead of four wings.

 
i'm thinking
more like Chloropidae, based on the lack of an anal cell (from what i see) and the very Elachiptera-like antennae. Compare the antennae with . I don't see an expanded ocellar triangle, so i might be wrong. You're right about the halteres; a few other types of insects have 2 wings, but none of them have the hind wings as halteres

 
Good info, Keith
In my mind, I have a very narrow definiton of "frit fly". Thanks for expanding it. Also appreciated is the correct spelling of, uh, halteres. (The reason I mentioned it is that people are often told that flys have two wings, but really have no way to be sure if their critter in question has two wings. Might sound odd, but I know it's been problematic for me.)

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