Dagger Fly
Female, abdomen
Water Floating Fly
Anterior
Animals
Plants
Info
| Dagger Fly Female, abdomen | | Water Floating Fly Anterior | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||||||||||
| Order: | Flies (Diptera) | |||||||||||||
| Family: | Shore Fly (Ephydridae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||
| Species: | Water Floating Fly (Brachydeutera sydneyensis)| This Photo: | 🔍Profile, ~4mm🔎 | Thank you Niels-Jan Dek for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills and elsewhere Small light brown & white fly regularly seen floating on water. They float there lapping up water with their elongated mouths at a very rapid rate; so getting 2 drinking at once was pure luck. Took so many photo's to get one with the mouth actually touching the water and in reasonable focus. They are so light they can float on 4 legs while using the front, or rear, pair to clean themselves. On a different iNat obs, where I suggested 3 other species where in the Brachydeutera genus, Tony Daley said "B. adusta and B. pleuralis lack distinct banding on the abdomen, and B. hardyi has distinctive longitudinal stripes on the scutum." Similar Species: Long Legged Fly (Hydrophorus praecox)
| |||||||||||