I've been snooping around the guide. I'm guessing Dennis will say Acrocera orbicula, especially since I did find it in a tall stalk of hay grass, and at first I thought it was a small ladybug (about 5mm).

And yes, Scott, this one did fly. It took off slowly and deliberately, kind of like a ladybug. I tried for an in-flight image, but all I got was a blur (still trying to figure out my camera).

Definitely Acrocera, but the pictures of the wing venation aren't quite sharp enough for me to make a species determination. I'm leaning towards Acrocera obsoleta based on the dark venter, but there are several other possibilities.

In fact...except for the less pronounced white spots on the humeri of the mesonotum here...the entire discussion in my recent post below appears to apply equally well to this post:



The extensive detail of my remarks there may not be everyone's cup of tea...but I'm hoping technico-scholarly oriented acroceridophiles will scrutinize that post and confirm or correct and comment on it. (And hopefully enjoy it as well! :-)

Note that the two similar posts below are a bit more problematic to place. They have the yellow scutellum and very pale whitish legs (rather than "honey yellow") associated A. convexa, but the pattern of black markings on their tergites conforms better to A. obsoleta:



Sabrosky (1948) stated that the availability of a richer specimen base (than what was available to him at that time) might indicate that these two closely related species are actually part of a single variable species. Has there been any other more recent work on neacrtic Acrocera that may address this and the many other unresolved issues brought up in Sabrosky (1948)??

Can it actually fly with those tiny wings? It's huge!

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