Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Black Psychodidae (01.10.23)

Posted by Juergen Peters on 21-10-2023 08:29
#1

Hello,

several of these tiny (2 mm) Psychodids I find at the bathroom sink since a week or two(northwest Germany).

Posted by weia on 21-10-2023 08:35
#2

I don't know. It has the wings folded, so it should be a Psychoda spec. But they are anything between white and grey, not blackish. Try to make more pictures. And when you find a dead one, look at the last segments of the antennae under a miscroscope.

Posted by Juergen Peters on 21-10-2023 10:56
#3

Hello weia,

thank you for your reply.

weia wrote:
they are anything between white and grey, not blackish.

I know the "normal" Psychodas, but this is not a single case. There are several of them, all completely black. I have also seen a mating couple.

Try to make more pictures.

I will try, but I doubt, that I will get much better photos. They are so small...

And when you find a dead one, look at the last segments of the antennae under a miscroscope.

I can only try a magnifying glass, I don't own a microscope.

Edited by Juergen Peters on 21-10-2023 11:05

Posted by Juergen Peters on 21-10-2023 11:08
#4

Hello,

I have just tried to shoot a better pic of an antenna.

Posted by weia on 21-10-2023 12:34
#5

You come quite far with the antenna. I have only knowledge of the species of the Netherlands and Belgium, so with some reserve: it looks like subspecies Psychoda, which in my region contains 3 species. It looks much like Psychoda (Psychoda) crassipennis, but I have never seen one in a collection, so I don't know its colour.
Crassipennis means 'thick wing'

Posted by weia on 21-10-2023 12:35
#6

Did you watch the mating behaviour? Before and how they find each other, duration?

Posted by Juergen Peters on 21-10-2023 18:03
#7

Thanks again for your reply.

weia wrote:
Did you watch the mating behaviour? Before and how they find each other, duration?


I only saw one couple already together, abdomen to abdomen. They sat there at the wall quite a while.