I'm fascinated by these little ants/flies that frequent our new home. We live in natural hardwood (oak, maple, elm, and cabbage palm) Florida hammock with a large pond right by the house, inland, but semi swampy. These insects like to frequent the railings on our log cabin and have a very thoughtful, slow, and methodical movement (hence the easy and crisp photos!). These particular shots were taken late morning, in full sun; as far as I've noticed, these insects come at any time of day, but [perhaps] I've seen them more often when it's sunny.

They seem to use their front pair of legs as "feelers" while standing still, waving them slowly about in the air. They also rub them together periodically much like a fly would. When one encounters another, a rapid motion of "feeler" movement ensues between the two as if they are probing eachother's front legs only and then one or the other rabidly exits without being pursued; they seem to be solitary.

The distinguishing physical characteristics I can obviously note are the white abdomen, black legs with white "feet," rust-colored body, red eyes, and very tiny antennae. At most their body is 1/2" long.

They seem to fly only to get from one separate location to another (i.e. one railing to another) and seem to prefer walking while investigating any particular location. They don't seem interested or affected at all by my presence when I put the camera in their tiny faces.

I've looked all over the internet and your site and have been unable to find anything that even resembles these neat insects, I'm really dying to find out what they are and what their diet is (and it would be handy to know if they bite)! Thanks in advance for you help, your site has been a priceless resource for us in our new home; with its natural setting, we've never before seen most of the insects that frequent it even though we lived literally 5 minutes away in our previous house!