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About 5mm across, photographed on 27-Mar-2014 running about on the leaves of a plant in the garden here in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Can it be identified?

Regards,
Martin

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Pneumia nubila

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Thanks Gunnar.
The tuft of facial hair is the key, isn't it?
How certain can I be without the specimen when I record this species?
Can you tell if it is male or female?
Best wishes,
Martin

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It is a male, only males have the facial tufts. Apparently, many Pneumia males have a large hair tuft in their face; in P. nubila it is placed on an enlarged frontofacial protuberance. A similar, but smaller structure is present in P. trivialis. It is probably some sexual thing - psychodids use a combination of visual displays and pheromones in their courtship.
I am fairly confident about the ID - the only species it can be confused with is P. trivialis, which is much less brown and much more grey. Still, I can't be 100% sure without a specimen...

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Looking at records for the UK, I can see Pericoma nubila and trivialis and Pneumia as a subgenus of Pericoma, but no Pneumia nubila or P trivialis. Another example of the confused Psychodid taxonomy I suppose...

Am I right in thinking the key characteristic to separate nubila from trivialis would be a microscopic examination of the facial structures?

Thanks again for your help.

Martin

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Pneumia was separated from Pericoma by Vaillant (1971), who called it Satchelliella. Morphological differences between the adults are slight, but the morphology and ecological requirements of the known larvae are quite distinct. It was Duckhouse (1990) who first suggested to treat it as a subgenus, but this has not been widely accepted. Pneumia is used as the genus name by all contemporary European specialists (maybe except for Phil Withers?).