An amazing snipe fly!

The fly world is almost infinite in its diversity, and teems with bizarre little characters such as this, the quadrate snipe fly, Chrysopilus quadratus. I was working with a colleague on a book project yesterday, and some curious turn of photo searching led us down my fly photo archive rabbit hole. She knows more about the Diptera than I, so I showed her my substantial stash of unidentified mystery fly photos. This snipe fly was one of them, but no more - we pinned a name to the strange little fellow. Of course, it isn't too hard to err on identifications in this world, so if I'm wrong please let me know.

Maybe I should have recognized it prior as a snipe fly, but it doesn't look too much like the one that I know well - the golden-backed snipe fly, C. thoracicus (see that species HERE).

I wish that I could tell you more about the quadrate snipe fly, but not much in the way of life history info is falling easily into hand, and my time to research "new" snipe flies is limited right now. A quick check of iNaturalist reveals only ten records for Ohio, scattered mostly around major population centers - where more entomologists are found. The habitat in which I found this one - July 19, 2015, in Clark County - was a very high quality fen, with associated wet prairie, and many rare species. However, for all I know, the quadrate snipe fly is a generalist and also occurs in more mundane habitats. Whatever the case, it is a darn cool bug.