Species: Bottle-green Semaphore Fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus)
Family: Long-legged flies (DOLICHOPODIDAE)
Category: Insects (Other)
Location: Widespread
A. Insects (Other)
More extensive information on insects can be found in a separate blog post.
B. Long-legged flies (DOLICHOPODIDAE)
There are more than 7,000 known members of this long-legged fly family. They are small flies with prominent eyes. The majority have long legs. Males have large genitalia - which help with identification.
These types of flies are usually predatory or are scavengers.
C. Bottle-green Semaphore Fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus)
The Bottle-green Semaphore Fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus) has a bright green thorax. While females are difficult to identify, males have very distinctive white wing tips.
These flies are easily capable of skating about on the surface of ponds, and this is where most of their mating and hunting happens.
As a result of their mate-selection behaviour, these flies have been studied in great depth.
They are common in the south of England, and because the males are easily identified it has been found that their range is gradually spreading northward as a result of climate change, an observation made in Britain and Sweden.
Images
Bottle-green Semaphore Fly
These flies are easily capable of skating about on the surface of ponds, and this is where most of their mating and hunting happens.
Bottle-green Semaphore Fly
The Bottle-green Semaphore Fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus) has a bright green thorax. While females are difficult to identify, males have very distinctive white wing tips.
