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Bathroom Moth Fly
Plate 1 of 4. (c) Sakern | 永隔一江水, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Sakern | 永隔一江水 · via iNaturalist

Bathroom Moth Fly

Clogmia albipunctata

Drain flies, sink flies, filter flies, or sewer gnats (Psychodidae) are small true flies (Diptera) with short, hairy bodies and wings giving them a "furry" moth-like appearance, hence one of their common names, moth flies. There are more than 4,700 known species worldwide, most of them native to the humid tropics. This makes them one of the most diverse families of their order. Drain flies sometimes inhabit plumbing drains and sewage systems, where they are a...

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From the article Clogmia albipunctata on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section

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Description

Clogmia albipunctata adults have broad wings covered with brownish and blackish hairs. There is a tuft of blackish hair near each wing vein fork and a tuft of white hair at the ends of most veins (i.e. each wing has a pair of black spots near the middle and several white spots along the edge). The thorax and abdomen are covered in gray/brownish-gray hairs. There is a pair of antennae which are longer than the abdomen and covered in white hairs. The legs are brown with white annuli (rings) at the tips of the tibiae and metatarsi. The original species description gives a body length of 2.2 mm and a wing length of 2.2 mm. Later records show C. albipunctata can reach slightly greater sizes, such as a body length of 2.5 mm. The species name, albipunctata, means "white-dotted", in reference to the white spots on the wings and appendages.

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Range & habitat

This very common species has a worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate areas and is often associated with humans. The species can be found near sewer drains, sewage treatment plants, plant pots, swamps and any other shaded place containing decaying, moist organic matter. The species is a common pest around household drains, but the larvae have an important role in sewage treatment.

Wikipedia: “Distribution”

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This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 258813.