It's always flies I need help identifying

[urbpan]

This dead one I'm 99 percent sure is an Aedes mosquito, the genus that includes Asian tiger mosquitoes and yellow fever mosquitoes, and is notorious for biting in daylight hours and flying for miles to do so.  I think they also lay eggs in dry places that will be wet, and the eggs hatch when it rains.  It's the groovy black and white pattern that makes me think so.

But the live one I'm holding in the first picture is indistinct to me, since I don't know what to look for.  Any help, entomologists?

Comments

[calypso72]

You could try posting on Bugguide - the photo looks a little like this guy only not quite. I bet it's in the same family (Asilidae, robber flies), anyway.

Here's a key to the Asilidae.

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

It is definitely a mosquito - the antennae with 11+ segments, the long proboscis, and the basic size of it mean that it can be a member of no other family but Culicidae.

If you look closely, you can see that the robber fly has antennae that look like a can opener, plus it has a different sort of mouth, not to mention the very characteristic beard.

[calypso72]

What you said -- I'm no bug expert.