Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Mycetophilidae --> Megophthalmidia crassicornis!

Posted by Tina S on 30-06-2022 18:02
#1

Hello,

in passed may for a few days these gnats flew through my room (I have no idea where they came from). Can someone help with their identification?

Data: Germany, Lower Saxony, Rodenberg, 90 m, in the house, 31 May 2022.

Best wishes,
Tina.

Edited by Tina S on 06-07-2022 15:12

Posted by Tina S on 30-06-2022 18:03
#2

This dead specimen I found three weeks later at the window. This one still had all its legs.

Posted by Tina S on 30-06-2022 18:04
#3

Wing venation, distortion-free.

Posted by Walther Gritsch on 01-07-2022 20:40
#4

Megophthalmidia crassicornis,exactly. That's what it is. One of its kind in Europe. Mainland Europe, anyway.

Posted by Tina S on 02-07-2022 19:26
#5

Thanks very much, Walther!

Where does this species breed?

Posted by Walther Gritsch on 03-07-2022 12:01
#6

Its biology seems to be unknown ... By the way, good old Landrock considered it to be very rare in Germany, i.e. about the first half of the twentieth century.

Posted by Tina S on 06-07-2022 15:10
#7

Thanks, Walther.
Back then, I had a vase with Apiaceae in it, but couldn't find any exuviae. Of another origin I couldn't think; then, they must have come in through the window(?). Nevertheless, it seemed as if they had hatched within my room, somehow. In other rooms of the house I saw none of them, neither in the garden...

Thank you also for the information on its rarity in Germany; interesting. The species can't be overlooked, it's really conspicuous (that said by a lepidopterologist, not a dipterist).

Edited by Tina S on 06-07-2022 15:10