Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly
Restoring habitat for the first fly protected under the Endangered Species Act
A small piece of Delhi Sands flower-loving fly habitat, surrounded by houses and businesses in Colton, CA. Roughly 2 to 3 percent of the historic dune system remains today.
A female Delhi Sands flower-loving fly rests on telegraph weed. Adults are visible only during a short summer flight season. July 2025.
A male Delhi Sands flower-loving fly, identifiable by the clasper at the tip of his abdomen, sunbathes on open sand. July 2025.
A female Delhi Sands flower-loving fly rests on a plant. July 2025
Rivers and Lands Conservancy staff and volunteers collect California buckwheat seed in Fontana, CA, to spread across areas with low vegetation. October 25, 2025.
A volunteer collects California buckwheat seed in Fontana, CA. October 25, 2025.
Angie Leon of Rivers and Lands Conservancy collects California buckwheat seed in Fontana, CA. October 25, 2025.
Volunteers clear dead vegetation from dune habitat in Fontana, CA, opening up the bare sand the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly depends on. October 25, 2025.
Riverside Parks staff and volunteers pull out and remove plants in areas that are overgrown. The Delhi Sands Flower-Loving Fly needs open sand areas to reproduce. October 25, 2025.
Michael Viramontes, stewardship manager at Rivers and Lands Conservancy, walks student volunteers from Moreno Valley College through planting California buckwheat in Colton, CA. October 25, 2025.
California buckwheat removed from an overgrown parcel is loaded onto a truck for transfer to another site. October 25, 2025.
A student volunteer from Moreno Valley College hands a pot of recently collected California buckwheat to his professor to load onto the truck. Colton, CA, October 25, 2025.
Student volunteers from Moreno Valley College pot California buckwheat for transfer to another property. Colton, CA, October 25, 2025.
Angie Leon, community programs and fundraising assistant at Rivers and Lands Conservancy, spreads California buckwheat seed in Colton, CA. October 25, 2025.
Michael Viramontes, Stewardship Manager at Rivers and Lands Conservancy, demonstrates how to plant California Buckwheat in the Delhi Sand Dunes in Colton, CA. October 25, 2025.
Felipe Galicia, professor of biology at Moreno Valley College, plants California buckwheat on a sand dune in Colton, CA. October 25, 2025.
Michael Viramontes, Stewardship Manager at Rivers and Lands Conservancy and a volunteer hammer wooden shims into the sand to stabilize the dune in Colton, CA. November 7, 2025.
New plantings take hold among the wooden shims in the Delhi Sands in Colton, CA. November 2025.
The gallery above is a small selection of the images I have captured for this story. I’m happy to provide more images upon request.
The Delhi Sands flower-loving fly lives in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and nowhere else on earth. In 1993 it became the first fly ever listed under the Endangered Species Act. Somewhere between two and three percent of the sand dune habitat it depends on is still intact. The rest was lost to development and agriculture.
I have documented the species and the restoration of its habitat for over a year.
