Green gnat

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Photographed at Karnala. Saw this for the first time. Has to be the most beautiful gnat I have seen :). Not sure of the exact ID. The feathery antennae indicate that it is a male.

Canon 500D, Canon 100mm Macro USM
Manual Exposure
Tv 1/200
Av 9.0 (Guess I should have increased it to at least 13.0)
ISO 400
Flash EC -2/3
Cropped about 39%, mainly from the bottom and right. (I wanted to crop out the bright bokeh spot near the bottom, a small part of it is still visible here)

Thanks, C&C awaited.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Oh quite a colourful species. Agree about cropping the bottom portion, or maybe moving the camera upwards would have been good. A narrower aperture would have helped as you have mentioned. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Interesting species. It is great that you are posting a number of different species which a lot of people will never notice or get a chance to see. I agree that a further narrow aperture would have given higher depth of field and brought out more details. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Thanks.
Mrudul: I was using ServoAF for this shot (since I couldn't find a comfortable position to shoot from) and it was set to the central AF point. I guess I should have switched to one of the lower AF points and moved the camera up :(.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

ID update: This seems to be a Midge Fly from the family Chironomidae. They resemble mosquitoes but do not feed on blood.
This family is mainly identified by:
(1) The long narrow wings (only 1 pair)
(2) The feathery antennae in the males
(3) The usually very long front tarsi (feet) which are often held up in the air and vibrated

These flies indicate water quality in the area. Depending on the species (not sure about this one), their presence or absence may indicate pollution of the water bodies in the area. They are also one of the main food sources for fish, aquatic invertebrates etc.(in the form of larvae) and birds (in the form of adults).

[Mrudul Godbole]

Thanks for sharing the detailed information. It is quite educating. Look forward to more.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Colourful and nice Abhishek. it does resemble a male mosquito.
TFS
Roopak