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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Flies (Diptera) » Orthorrhapha » Empidoidea » Longlegged Flies (Dolichopodidae) » Medeterinae » Thrypticus
Photo#1465262
Grass culm borer - Thrypticus
Copyright © 2017 John van der Linden

Grass culm borer - Thrypticus
Chattahoochie Park, Winneshiek County, Iowa, USA
November 6, 2017
Fly larva boring in Virginia wild rye, Elymus virginicus

Shown here is a cutaway of the culm with sign of larva's herbivory; larva is present in this section of culm but is hidden by the frass/debris that surrounds it (debris removed for 3rd photo in this series)

Ruler units are sixteenths of an inch

ID'ed tentatively as Thrypticus sp. based on similarity to


Adult, reared by F. Lebhart

Images of this individual: tag all
Grass culm borer - Thrypticus Grass culm borer - Thrypticus Grass culm borer - Thrypticus Grass culm borer - Thrypticus Grass culm borer - Thrypticus Grass culm borer - Thrypticus Grass culm borer - Thrypticus Grass culm borer - Thrypticus
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Contributed by John van der Linden on 8 November, 2017 - 1:44pm
Last updated 8 May, 2018 - 10:51pm

Plant ID
Thanks to several Bugguide users for confirming the host plant as Elymus sp. and suggesting species IDs for it as well. For the species ID, I'm going with E. virginicus, Virginia wild rye, due to the bowed glumes (thanks for pointing that out, John and Jane Balaban) and the fact that when I handle the seedhead, "the spikelets disarticulate below the glumes, leaving the rachis naked, unlike E. villosus or E. riparius, which disarticulate above the glumes, leaving the rachis bristling with glumes" (a quote from here).
… John van der Linden, 10 November, 2017 - 1:58pm login or register to post comments

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