{"id":2836,"date":"2023-12-20T15:10:44","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T15:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2026-08-23T10:40:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T10:40:27","slug":"2023-12-gardens-micro-predator-condylostylus-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2023-12-gardens-micro-predator-condylostylus-en\/","title":{"rendered":"The garden&#8217;s micro-predator: Tracking Condylostylus quadricolor for two years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Condylostylus <\/em>is a genus of long-legged flies (family <em>Dolichopodidae<\/em>) renowned for their shimmering metallic colors and incredible aerial agility. Despite measuring a mere 1 to 9 mm in length, these swift predators are highly beneficial to gardeners, voraciously feeding on small, soft-bodied pests like aphids, thrips, spider mites, and whiteflies. During mating rituals, males utilize their specially modified legs and distinct wing markings to perform elaborate visual &#8220;dances&#8221; for the females. Once fertilized, females lay their eggs in damp soil or decaying vegetation, where the hatched larvae continue the family tradition as fierce predators of other soil-dwelling arthropods. I was fortunate enough to encounter this stunning fly likely belonging to the species <em>Condylostylus quadricolor<\/em> on two separate occasions in Ecuador: first in December 2022 in Mindo, using my older photography gear, and again in December 2023 with an upgraded setup in a protected coastal rainforest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Condylostylus is a genus of long-legged flies (family Dolichopodidae) renowned for their shimmering metallic colors and incredible aerial agility. Despite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"countries":[74,73],"order-category":[44,60,472],"class_list":["post-2836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predators","countries-ecuador","countries-south-america","order-category-insects-flies","order-category-insects","order-category-insects-flies-long-legged-flies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9782,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions\/9782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"order-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/order-category?post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}