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Photo#977643
Apiocerid fly, sp.? - Apiocera - male

Apiocerid fly, sp.? - Apiocera - Male
Taboose Creek, Owens Valley, Inyo County, California, USA
July 28, 2014
Size: ~1/2"
Common on coarse sand near creek.

Nice find, Bob!
I love apiocerids, and have made a few posts myself from Oregon, the Santa Cruz Sandhills, and the Colorado River near Needles. And I've looked for them unsuccessfully in the dunes near Keeler (east side of Owens Lake) and elsewhere.

I've also searched out literature and links, and added them to BugGuide posts and info pages...but the species are extremely difficult to ID without being able to examine terminalia structures visible only by opening the two large claspers in the males. I don't like to capture and kill things, especially favorites like apiocerids, but if one can find cooperative mating pairs as in the post below...

 

...then one may be able to get photographic images in the wild that show some of those "under the claspers" characters. Also, the patterns of darkness and pollinose markings, as well as range considerations, can help.

Apiocerids apparently prefer sandy habitats, which seems to be where females oviposit and the larvae live...presumably feeding on arenicolous insects and/or scavenging other sustenance from a kind of "plankton" swimming beneath the sand.

Moved
Moved from Flies.

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