Longlegged fly (Condylostylus longicornis)
Technically, “longlegged fly” describes the family, not this individual species, but that’s the common name for Condylostylus longicornis. This small, iridescent green fly with red eyes is tiny — about 5mm (I need a better measurement, I describe everything as 5mm) — and fast!
This individual really, really wanted to sit on that plant, but also really didn’t like my flash, so every time the flash went off, the fly would zap upwards and backwards, and then return to the plant almost before the camera shutter stopped again. It took me a couple photos to realize the fly was even doing that!
Increasing my shutter to Ludicrous Speed (okay, 1/1250, but that’s still Ludicrous for ordinary flash-sync) caught the fly mid-jump and showed me what was happening:
Longlegged fly (Condylostylus longicornis)
And, for comic relief, here’s an outtake where you can see the fly, instead of leaping, fell off the leaf and is giving me the biggest middle finger of which a fly is capable:
Longlegged fly (Condylostylus longicornis)