Species Dolichopus tenuipes

Dolichopus tenuipes Aldrich, 1894

Dolichopus tenuipes "has the fore tarsi in the male exceedingly elongated, and slender, with the last joint in the shape of a comparatively large, oval black disk... I observed in September the maneuvers of the male in courting the female. He would place himself directly in front of her, at a distance of about half an inch, with his face toward her. He would then rapidly vibrate his wings, holding them horizontally at right angles to the body; and at the same time would give these fore feet an up and down motion, raising them simultaneously to the level of the head and bring them down with a slight force upon the ground, the movement recurring in a measured way in about half a second. This he would continue for about 10 seconds; then, rising on the wing, he would swiftly make a small semicircle in the air and attempt to alight upon the female. In the large number of cases that I observed, he was always unsuccessful, the female hastily moving away a few inches, when the male would usually alight before her and repeat the movements. ... I saw the same maneuver repeated hundreds of times." -- J. M. Aldrich (1894 quoted in Van Duzee et al. 1922(1))