Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Boatman Fly

Pogonortalis doclea

Description:

Black flying insect with red eyes that has a horizontal stripe across them. It moves its wings forward and back while on the leaf (see video).

Habitat:

On a leaf in the backyard. Originated in Australia and was introduced to Cali.

Notes:

" "Boatman Fly" comes from the way they wave their wings, like oars on a rowboat." - BugGuide. This was shot using my Canon Powershot G12 compact camera on kids & pets mode using manual focus.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

8 Comments

Thank you Leuba!

Leuba Ridgway
Leuba Ridgway 11 years ago

Fantastic shots Cindy !

Thank you Luis and Aleja!

AlejaPatiño
AlejaPatiño 11 years ago

Nice shots!!

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 11 years ago

I like the video.

CindyBinghamKeiser
CindyBinghamKeiser 12 years ago

Does anyone know the reason why they move their wings like oars? I wasn't able to find a good reference online for this fly.

CindyBinghamKeiser
CindyBinghamKeiser 12 years ago

Thank you for the suggestion, tiberio_graco. I found the ID based on the wing movement.

tiberio_graco
tiberio_graco 12 years ago

Lonchaeidae Family

San Diego, California, USA

Spotted on Sep 10, 2011
Submitted on Sep 11, 2011

Related Spottings

Boatman Fly Boatman Fly Boatman fly Boatman Fly

Nearby Spottings

Spotting (Dead) False Black Widow Leafhopper Assassin Bug Orb Weaver
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team