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Gnat from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, 1665 A female black fungus gnat. A gnat (/ ˈ n æ t /) is any of many species of tiny flying insects in the dipterid suborder Nematocera, especially those in the families Mycetophilidae, Anisopodidae and Sciaridae. [1]
This structure attracts ants because of its resemblance to the elaiosome of some plant seeds that are sought-after food sources for ant larvae, and usually contribute to ensuring seed dispersal by ants, a form of ant-plant mutualism called myrmecochory. The ants take the egg into their nest underground and can remove the capitulum to feed to ...
For terms see Morphology of Diptera.Chloropidae are minute to small (1.0 to 4.0 mm), rarely medium-sized, flies (6.0 to 9.0 and 12 mm) They are either black, gray, yellow, or greenish and the mesonotum often has a pattern of three to five dark longitudinal stripes against a light-colored background.
An adult crane fly, resembling an oversized male mosquito, typically has a slender body and long, stilt-like legs that are deciduous, easily coming off the body. [12] [2] Like other insects, their wings are marked with wing interference patterns which vary among species, thus are useful for species identification. [13]
From mosquitoes, ants, flies, roaches and more, bugs are everywhere when it’s warm. This summer’s crop of creepy crawlers look ugly and sinister. But don’t be fooled by their sizes.
The larvae of Diptera feed on a diverse array of nutrients ; often these are different from those of adults, for instance the larvae of Syrphidae in which family the adults are flower-feeding are saprotrophs, eating decaying plant or animal matter, or insectivores, eating aphids, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects.
The flat morph aphids are aggressive mimics with a "wolf in sheep's clothing" strategy: they have hydrocarbons in their cuticle that mimic those of the ants, and the ants carry them into the brood chamber of the ants' nest and raise them like ant larvae. Once there, the flat morph aphids behave like predators, drinking the body fluids of ant ...
Flying midges in their adult stage are eaten by fish and insectivorous birds, such as swallows and martins. They are also thought to be an especially important food source for tufted duck chicks during their first few days of life. They also are preyed on by bats and flying predatory insects, such as Odonata and dance flies.