Mangrove Long Legged Fly
Size about 8mm. When exploring some mangrove habitat that was a very curious fly. It hopped around me but was always on the move. When it sat still for once, it showed a quicker rapid escape response than the light could hit the sensor of my camera. Lots of empty or half empty frames. There also seemed to be some territorial or mating behaviour going on. Once even an ant ruined the chance to catch a returned fly in the frame. The fly seemed to get a scare and landed a few centimetres away. I think this fly is different to the other long legged flies documented so far. It had a blue body, quite sturdy. Legs were often bent outwards, making it look like a normal fly. I found it in several spots, hence assume that it is common and predominant in this habitat. NB: Just tried out to find some picture records for Australian long legged flies in GBIF. There is one (!) single picture. Congratulations. It is also almost impossible to find picture records on GBIF. Always wonder what data Global Biodiversity Database research is working with. Do researchers simply trust taxonomic classifications of records? If I find Lungfishes under Weevils in ALA (and am politely asked to spend another 30 minutes trying to report because their system fails), that doesn't sound very scientific/accurate at all.
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