Summer Fishfly
Chauliodes pectinicornis · Other insects
Summer Fishfly
Upstate New York, 17 August 2025
A Summer Fishfly on a wall near a pond in Upstate New York in August - not the antlion it was first written up as. Fishflies are insects of slow, muddy water across the eastern United States, and the adults turn up on decks and walls close to a pond or a stream because that is where the larvae live, for a year or two, hunting other insects.
A relative of the dobsonflies, with the comb-toothed antennae that name this species: pectinicornis, "comb-horned". The broad, mottled wings folded over the back like a roof and the long body are the family look; an antlion's antennae are short and clubbed. Mid-August is the summer fishfly's season. They fly at night, feed little if at all, and live a few days.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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