Spring fishfly

Chauliodes rastricornis

Description:

Transparent wings, long body

Habitat:

Near calm water. Larva can be found in bodies of calm water for years before crawling out into the bark of a rotting log to pupate.

Notes:

Nocturnal, adult lifespan: one week

Species ID Suggestions

3 Comments

ForestDragon 11 years ago

Hi Marthy, glad to help. I found a female Spring Fishfly last June at a local county park when I was camping last year. They are pretty interesting. The female Spring Fishflies have different antennae than the males as you can see in my picture:
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/120...

MarthyJCannary 11 years ago

thank you so much! I didn't expect such a thorough comment! And this is the bug I most wanted an ID on. I keep seeing them around at night and it was starting to get to me. :)

ForestDragon 11 years ago

Cool find! This is a species of Fishfly, Genus Chauliodes. There is a good chance that this is a Spring Fishfly, Chauliodes rastricornis, because of the time of year but it is warmer in Florida and I don't know if Summer Fishflies are out earlier there.
They are very similar in appearance with some minor coloration differences. It is a bit difficult to tell the colors in your picture. So I am not sure. here are links to the pages for both species from Bugguide:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/8569
http://bugguide.net/node/view/8568