My group and I arrived in Costa Rica yesterday. We are still getting our bearings, but today we got at least a little time in the field. No doubt we will continue to find strange and exciting new behaviors and species of phorid flies. As I write this, there is pounding rain outside, hopefully not flooding the two light traps (see previous post). Tomorrow, I should have time and energy to publish a longer blog on what we have found so far

Meanwhile, take a look at this Microdon flower fly from a Malaise trap sample. This is from an area around the town of Guapiles, where we are also staying. I’m not an expert on this group, but this is a pretty amazing looking fly to me. Maybe one of the syrphid experts will comment?

a syrphid fly that caught my eye