2017 March 27

   Jeremy Tatum writes:  Bryan Gates sends us some identification challenges of nematoceran flies from his window.  I am certainly no expert on nematoceran flies, but I think all three of Bryan’s are different from Ken Vaughan’s winter gnat (Trichoceridae) posted on March 20.  The first two of Bryan’s are male and female of doubtless the same species of non-biting midge.  We can’t see the wing venation on the third so I’m slightly less sure of it, but I believe it is a small crane fly  (not, obviously, the familiar Tipula paludosa).  We’d need an expert to go below Family level.   None of them bites humans.

 Male midge (Dip.: Chironomidae)   Bryan Gates

 Female midge (Dip.: Chironomidae)   Bryan Gates

Crane fly (Dip.: Tipulidae)  Bryan Gates