Testing new flash and slight modifications to diffuser. There are always flies in the trash room.
Your standard household drain fly. Realized I'd never photographed one of these before so why not add it to the collection.
Found indoors. Tiny, just a smidge bigger than a fruit fly. Photo taken with macro lens and zoomed in.
Found on the blinds in my room. Took it to the kitchen area for some photos, then released it there, and it got eyes on a fly right away. It was verrry slowly creeping up on this fly for a good 5 minutes before it pounced.
3.5mm
Prey observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15213349
We've had a lot of these show up recently. I took some photos of the jumping spider in the kitchen area and then released it there, and it found one of these flies right away. The fly being eaten was just a few inches away from the one that lived (for now). I'm assuming they're the same kind.
~3mm
spider observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15213348
It was captured inside the house.
Roughly 1.8 cm long. Was found inside my house by my mother on an umbrella, then captured and photographed. I attempted to release it but it is mostly immobile and non-responsive-- I assume it is reaching the end of its life.
Found in my building's trash room.
7 part photostory, this one is for the fly
Photo 1:
I Thought It Was A Yellowjacket
When I came inside my house, what I thought was a yellow jacket came in with me. This is a problem because I like to go barefoot and I have cats that could get stung also. I went to get a broom to try to slap it down out of the air. When I came back it had gone to a window with blinds. I discovered that a tiny spider had solved my problem. The "yellow jacket" had been caught in a web. Later when I got the insect identified by experts, it turned out to be a fly pretending to be a yellow jacket. This is an example of Batesian mimicry which is when a harmless, tasty species mimics another species that is toxic or foul tasting or dangerous in order to be protected from predators. Sure fooled me. It did not deter the spider.
Photo 2:
Spider To The Rescue
The spider solved my problem. Here is the spider coming to take a look at what it caught in its web. I was shooting these photos through open blinds.
Photo 3:
Underside Of The Spider
I took this shot to help with getting an id on the spider.
Photo 4:
Topside Of The Spider
As the spider wrapped some silk around the fly's legs, I got a shot of the top side of the spider.
Photo 5:
Uncropped Shot For Perspective
I left this shot uncropped to show how I was having to do this, shooting between two blinds slats.
Photo 6:
Spider Injects venom
The spider may have been fooled by the mimicry because it avoided the end of the fly where a stinger would be if it were a wasp. What the spider did, as shown here, was to bite the leg which injected venom. The fly stopped struggling shortly after that.
Photo 7:
The Spider Won
I had to leave at this point so took this last photo of the spider. Several hours later when I got back the fly was wrapped up in silk for a later meal. The next morning there was nothing left to be seen.
Fly id confirmed in bugguide here: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1616641
Black soldier fly larvae on my carpet. Must've come through the tiny hole in my bathroom's door.
Indoors, attracted to spilled fruit juice. Fairly robust, body length ~3mm, close to 5mm with wings considered.
Estimated body length ~4mm and wingspan ~5-6mm.. Observed on an interior wall of the house.
Found in my house - maybe came in with potted plant that had been outside and emerged early in the warm conditions? 5mm squares
Also posted on bugguide:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/1341437
They flew in the open door, found each other, and began mating in the living room.
probably flew into house from outside, but found flying in kitchen
Found on wall in house
It may have been inside the house all winter. It seemed sluggish and looked worn.
I saw this guy years ago on our back door before I joined iNat and had a camera and I always hoped I would see it again. And here it was in our house!
what have i done
worstie
Fairly large.
These Mosquitos are currently all over, and they keep getting into the house. I found this one inside on a wall late at night. Its back legs were raised into the air and moving slightly up and down. Photo 17 shows a measurement in centimeters.
Photos 1, 4-7, and 9-16 were brightened in Photoshop.
She just wanted to read the iNaturalist forum
Body length around 2mm, wingspan around 5mm.
I'm assuming this is some type of tiny midge, hanging out on my kitchen wall. The second picture was taken with flash, so it is overexposed but it might show some more details on the insect.
This was about as long as a grain of rice. Found it on my bathroom floor. Thought it was a piece of bark until I realized it moved. I took a video of him. He pulls himself forward with his nose, the pointy end. The left side of the photo is his rear.
Found dead on windowsill in living room.
Strange larva found in bathroom
Observed in an office building stairwell
Carlsbad, CA
Caught by a butterwort.
This Fly was in my bathroom. I had trouble catching it, but I relocated it outside.
Photo 7 shows someone's egg on the Fly's abdomen, which fell off as I handled it. You can see the egg on my thumb in the background of photo 13 and in photo 14. Photo 15 shows a haltere.
Body length≈9 mm. Muscina? It was overwintering inside the house.
Found indoors
STUPID FLY KILLED MY FAVORITE FLANNEL BABY
Stupid maggot that killed my favorite flannel baby turned into a stupid fly
Not at all shy... never seen one of these inside the house.