Green Soldier Fly
S1, male, Black Abdomen Pattern
Green Soldier Fly
S2, female, dorsal
| Green Soldier Fly S1, male, Black Abdomen Pattern | | Green Soldier Fly S2, female, dorsal | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Flies (Diptera) | ||||
| Family: | Soldier Fly (Stratiomyidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Green Soldier Fly (Odontomyia decipiens) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S1, male, ventral🔎 | ||||
Thank you Dr Martin Hauser for identifying this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere Males were ~9 to ~10mm long, female ~11mm long. We thought this might be Odontomyia amyris. The spines on the end of the scutellum were roughly horizontal with the body, which is diagnostic. Like so many flies, gender can be separated by the distance between the top of the eyes; touching = male, separated = female. We found some with more red colouring, dorsally, and considered they may be a different species; which also had more black on the abdomen. We found these on the same day in Melaleuca lanceolata. Martin said of the redder ones "not as green metallic as in the other decipiens. So this is just a tentative ID. The coloration of the abdomen is usually variable, also the amount of yellow on the scutellum." | |||||
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