Long-Legged Fly

Description:

Species vary in appearance and biology. Adults are medium to small slender flies normally with green, blue or copper <1 mm up to 9 mm, usually under 5 mm metallic colored bodies and long legs. Their wings are clear or marked with darker areas towards the wing tips. Wing venation is characteristic.

Habitat:

Lightly shaded areas near swamps and streams, in meadows and woodlands.

Notes:

Larvae develop in wet to dry soil and pupate in cocoons made up of soil particles cemented together. Pupae have of a pair of long, dorsal prothoracic respiratory horns and a pair of frontofacial sutures Adults mate after elaborate and unique behavior, involving the males displaying their legs or wings to the female.