Journal #2

USA, California, Los Angeles County, Lat: 34.0368358 Long: -117.9130731, Elev: 161m, 14 April 2020, Coll: E. Antunez

Method: Hand catching

Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm

Today was the first day in a while that it was not raining! I had put out my pan traps before the rain, thinking that the rain had passed and it didn’t… so my traps were compromised. It was such a warm day so I went for a little walk and hoped to see some insects. Right off the bat, I noticed so many Hymenoptera! I even noticed a hornet’s nest forming in my backyard, which my parents want to get rid of. I turned to leave my backyard and there was a cool looking thing on my screen! I thought it might have been some type of wasp but when I posted it on iNaturalist, I found out it was a White-winged March Fly. I continued walking and observed lots of flies; 3-4 were huddled together basking in the sun. I sat down on a patch of grass and saw what I thought was a termite but I couldn’t get a clear enough photo to identify it, but it had long wings that were twice its body. I also noticed a tiny little beetle on the cement that was moving pretty quickly to get away from me as I tried to grab it to take a quick pic. Again, I saw many little black ants. I flipped a rock and saw numerous ants carrying little white balls, which I’m sure were their eggs and I felt pretty bad that I destroyed their pile. I also took a quick glimpse at a grasshopper that was perched on a bush. Before I could get a good look though, it flew/jumped away.

Species list:
Unidentified flies (I’m convinced I saw a Satellite fly)
White-winged March Fly
Darkling beetle
Hornet
Honey bee
Little black ants
Termite (?)
Grasshopper

Species Account:
I thought the white-winged march fly was cool! When I first saw it, it looked like it didn’t have any wings, and my sister saw it and thought it was a mosquito. For some reason, I thought it could have been many things and for some reason didn’t think it was a fly. I didn’t want to kill it because I realized there is not much of a purpose if we don’t get to turn in a physical collection, so I just had it in a vile for a while and it was so entertaining to watch. It just kept going to the top and falling down for about 10 minutes and attempted to fly and messed up its wings. It's body is shaped somewhat like a cone, in that it’s abdomen is slimmer than its thorax area and its hind legs are pretty long. It also has white wings (of course it’s in the name) but has a dark spot on each wing which helped in identifying it.

Posted on 15 de abril de 2020, 11:50 PM by