Love Bugs or Fungus Gnats?

May 2005

I have been getting many reports from throughout the southeast, but especially South Carolina, of love bugs in areas where they are not normally reported (e.g. Columbia, SC). In every case where I have been able to verify the report, these flies are actually Dark-Winged Fungus Gnats (Sciaridae) and not the love bugs (Plecia nearctica) that we all love to hate. Although there are many superficial similarities, and in fact even the trained eye has difficulty discriminating the two from some angles, the gnat does not generally fly around in tandem (especially not for days at a time). In addition, the gnat has a red-orange abdomen and a black thorax while the love bugs has a red thorax and a black abdomen.