Tiny fly on Black Sage leaf
I found this tiny fly (Diptera) on a leaf of native Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) in the Lamiaceae plant family. My first thought was it is a Bee Fly (family Bombyliidae) because of that stout proboscis and humped back - maybe genus Geron, though it doesn't seem as furry as the photos at BugGuide. But looking closer, I see that its proboscis sticks out straight and is flattened from side to side - which suggests it is a Dance Fly in the family Empididae, and I think that's the better guess. It's small, about 1170 pixels long in this 1:1 macro shot, which comes to 4.6 mm long, about 3/16 inch. (See here for how I figured.) This is my photo for the Macro Mondays group, with the theme of "Less Than An Inch" - and it certainly does qualify. The entire photo as cropped is 2,356 pixels across, which comes to about 3/8 inch. Most of my photos would probably satisfy this condition. HMM! (San Marcos Pass, 24 February 2018)
Tiny fly on Black Sage leaf
I found this tiny fly (Diptera) on a leaf of native Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) in the Lamiaceae plant family. My first thought was it is a Bee Fly (family Bombyliidae) because of that stout proboscis and humped back - maybe genus Geron, though it doesn't seem as furry as the photos at BugGuide. But looking closer, I see that its proboscis sticks out straight and is flattened from side to side - which suggests it is a Dance Fly in the family Empididae, and I think that's the better guess. It's small, about 1170 pixels long in this 1:1 macro shot, which comes to 4.6 mm long, about 3/16 inch. (See here for how I figured.) This is my photo for the Macro Mondays group, with the theme of "Less Than An Inch" - and it certainly does qualify. The entire photo as cropped is 2,356 pixels across, which comes to about 3/8 inch. Most of my photos would probably satisfy this condition. HMM! (San Marcos Pass, 24 February 2018)