As a transplant, I had never seen the lowcountry phenomenon of lovebugs before, and couldn’t believe that that was actually their name.  Lovebugs, or Plecia nearctica, can be seen all over the island in fall.  They are actually a Central/South American species that is making their way northward, and were first documented on Florida in 1949.  According to this wikipedia article, the adults remain coupled after mating for up to several days.

Their larvae feed on partially decayed vegetation and the adults feed on nectar.  They live most of their lives as larvae, buried in the leaf mulch.  About twice a year, the adults all emerge at the same time, find mates, and swarm around, making pests of themselves.  They are preyed upon by spiders, earwigs, and centipedes.

Because they are relatively recent transplants in the southeastern US, there is actually an urban legend that they are a synthetic bug created at the University of Florida.  That has been disproven, but it makes for a funny story.  Read more about it at snopes.com. And there is a professor at the University of South Carolina with a project called Lovebugs on the Move, actually collecting data on when and where people find them, so he can document the speed of the migration.  I’ll send him a photo of ours and our geographic locations for his research.

In the meanwhile, they are relatively harmless.  Enjoy their pushme-pullyou aspects of flying while linked together.