Tiny Fly - Loewimyia - BugGuide.Net

Moved

Moved from Asteiidae pending revision of North American Asteiidae (which could be a long, long time).

… John F. Carr, 17 December, 2012 - 6:17pm

=ha!=

… v belov, 18 December, 2012 - 8:10pm

Loewimyia?

The odd antennae (no obvious arista and the rest of the antenna quite long-haired and "ragged" looking) strongly suggest that this is Loewimyia (let's say 90% confidence on that because I can't see a couple of characters clearly enough).

Like so many small acalyptrate flies, there are likely multiple undescribed or unrecorded species of Loewimyia present in North America and the geographic ranges of the species are very poorly known or documented.

… Terry Wheeler, 17 December, 2012 - 11:24am

Antennae

If you find another try to get the antennae in focus. There aren't any American Asteiidae with those antennae. On the other hand, there aren't any American non-Asteiidae with the rest of that body.

… John F. Carr, 14 October, 2012 - 7:01pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… John F. Carr, 13 October, 2012 - 9:04pm

Asteia?

Compare Asteia.

… John F. Carr, 13 October, 2012 - 8:53pm

No Comparison :)

Your shots are awesome. How did you get those shots with reflections. I gotta learn new ways to shoot with my MP-E and not just shoot the same way I do with my 100mm macro. I'm going to see if that sucker is still out there ... fat chance, right :)

… Robert Lord Zimlich, 13 October, 2012 - 8:59pm

Equipment

I took the picture with a 24 mm lens reversed on 36 mm of extension tubes, about 3.8:1 magnification. I probably used the on-camera flash because there is only a single reflection. The fly was trapped between two of those clear filters camera stores will try to sell you as lens protection. It's necessary to have the camera not quite at right angles to the glass to avoid excess reflection off the glass. I may have subtracted out some glare in postprocessing.

… John F. Carr, 13 October, 2012 - 9:13pm