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kayjay
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Location: Southern Ontario

Insect ID? Tiny metallic flies on pepper leaves

These are tiny flies that are hanging around my pepper plants. They don't seem to be anywhere else. They are on the leaves and have a funny "flitting" way of moving, almost hopping around the plant. It was really hard to get pics.

They're about the size of sesame seeds; very small. They are a really pretty, shiny green or gold (there are some of both.)

Hover fly? Sweat bee? I've googled pics, but none of them quite look like these.
IMG_0370.JPG
IMG_0370.JPG (98.29 KiB) Viewed 5817 times
TIA!

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Is this the same one?

https://floridagardener.com/critters/Ben ... odidae.htm
Dolichopodidae (Long-Legged Fly)
A Beneficial Garden Insect
Image
Subject: Small shiny green flies on my tomato leaves
Sun May 26, 2013 5:33 am
applestar wrote:This is an old thread and the image links don't seem to be working any more, but when I googled to look up "tiny shiny metallic green flies", this thread came up. :lol:

I wanted to post about them because I knew they are beneficial predators. :D

The other day when I was planting tomatoes, I kept hearing a "whine" that I associate with mosquitoes. Shook my head/hair a couple of times, stood up and stepped away, etc.... Everything except use my dirty gloved hands, but I couldn't get rid of it, so when I took my gloves off to tie up a tomato, I ran my hand through my hair.

...and one of these tiny metallic green flies hovered in front of my face, then flew off.

I was left musing that this fly seemed like it was "reporting for duty" and got caught in my hair -- or was showing itself to me to say "please don't swat me"..... :()

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kayjay
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I hope so, Applestar. I can't even really get a good look at them because I'm slightly farsighted, and they're so tiny and fast. Maybe I'll try getting a pic with my better camera. That was my phone, which is showing its age. (An iPhone 4s. :eek: )

I meant to add that there's no sign of damage to the plants at all. I'm hoping they're just hanging around for the flowers.

(ETA) I think we have a winner. I googled 'dolichopodidae ontario' and found this image. It's pretty close.
fly.jpg
fly.jpg (87.14 KiB) Viewed 5806 times
IMG_0370.JPG
IMG_0370.JPG (98.29 KiB) Viewed 5806 times

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Fantastic! The ones in my garden are likely this species as well since they don’t have the black bands on the wings like the Florida one. Reading up on their prey — I like that their larvae eats mosquito larvae.

...but now I wonder if using Mosquito-Bits/Bti to kill the mosquito larvae would also kill the fly larvae... or are flies different from mosquitoes/fungus gnats?



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