Fleshfly-mimicking Bristle Fly
Orange Anal Tuft
Fleshfly-mimicking Bristle Fly
Host
| Fleshfly-mimicking Bristle Fly Orange Anal Tuft | | Fleshfly-mimicking Bristle Fly Host | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Flies (Diptera) | ||||
| Family: | Bristle Fly (Tachinidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Fleshfly-mimicking Bristle Fly (Exorista sp) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍Pupal Case🔎 | ||||
Thank you Tony Daley & David Muirhead for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere ~12mm long. The hairy eyes, very large feet pads & orange collar steered us away from Fleshflies when trying to id this fly. It's parent parisitised a Clear Winged Snout Moth (Genduara subnotata) that we caught, which then cocooned. Click here for more details of the host The caterpillar seemed quite lethargic when we found it. Then realised it was damaged in the top/middle. Thought it was bruised.In these situations we keep them to stop the ants attacking them; let the ants have them once they've died. When photographing it, it exhibited strange behaviour, rearing up bending at the "bruised" area. To our surprise it started cocooning that afternoon. A couple of days later a different pupal case appeared in the insect box. It looked a little like a cockroach ootheca. 5 weeks after the caterpillar cocooned this fly emerged. Similar Species: Grey Flesh Fly (Sarcophaga aurifrons) | |||||
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