| Key to the list at the end of each section: | |
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Black - Bio Blitz 2015 not photographed |
Blue - Bio Blitz 2015 photographed |
Red - photographed & identified by Volunteers |
Green - from NatureSpot |
All pictures are taken on the reserve. |
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Hover over the following pictures to enlarge |
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Flies, Gnats and Midges
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Flies are an insect of the order Diptera. The Diptera is a large order of advanced flying insects. Their most obvious distinction from other insects is in their flight. A typical fly has two flight wings on its thorax and a pair of halteres. The halteres, which evolved from the hind wings, act as flight sensors: they are balance organs. Also flies have large eyes with excellent wide-angle vision. |
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Bee Fly - Bombylius major John F April 2018 A furry bee-like fly with long legs and proboscis and a body the size of a small bumble bee. The larvae are parasitic on other insects especially solitary bees and wasps. Eggs are laid near the nest and the young larva make their way into the nest where they attack both the food store and the the young bee or wasp. |
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Blue Bottle - Calliphora vomitoria John F Sept 2016 Blue Bottle Flies are from the Blow Fly family. They are larger than house flies, growing about half an inch long. Their head and thorax (front and middle sections) are gray, the abdomen (large rear section) is bright metallic blue. They have red eyes and clear wings. Blue Bottle Flies live just about anywhere, including woods, fields, parks, and farms. They seem to prefer shady places. Blue Bottle Flies often enter homes. This fly eats from dead animals or meat, living animals with open wounds, animal poop, or some other decaying matter. |
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Broad Centurian - Chloromyia formosa John F June 2017 Soldier flies are distinctive with very hairy eyes. Chloromya formosa, commonly known as the 'Broad Centurion' or 'Green Soldier Fly', is one of the commonest and most widespread soldier flies, and is often found in gardens. It breeds in damp, rotting vegetation, including compost heaps, and adults visit flowers to feed on nectar. It has large eyes and rounded, brown, translucent wings. The females have a metallic blue-green body, while the males are more bronzy-green. However, there are almost 50 species of soldier fly in the UK, found in a wide variety of habitats. They are a colourful group of small to medium-sized flies, sometimes hairy but never bristly. |
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Cranefly - Tipula paludosaI John F These adults, resemble overgrown mosquitoes with long legs, or daddy-long-legs with wings. The legs are easily broken off. Common in spring and autumn. The larva are known as leatherjackets. These maggots browse on grass roots and have also been known to strip all the root hairs and bark off the roots of bare root spruce stock in commercial nurseries. |
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Dance Fly - Empis opaca Sue & Roy This group of flies, sometimes called Dance flies, are predators of other insects, often tackling large prey, using their long, dagger-like snout. This species is distinguished from the very similar Empis tessellata by having red/brown thighs (E. tessellata has black thighs). Males of E. opaca and E. tessellata present a 'gift' to the female, in the form of a dead insect, before mating takes place. Females will not mate with males who do not present a gift. Fairly common and widespread in England and Wales, fewer records from Scotland. |
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Flesh Fly - Sarcophaga carnaria John F Sept 2016 A single female can produce hundreds of eggs during her lifetime, and more than 25 larvae may hatch at one time. Depending upon the species, eggs may hatch within 24 hours and the entire life cycle of the flesh fly may be complete within one to three weeks. Larvae are yellow in color, with pointed heads. They thrive in decaying meat, manure and garbage. Some flesh flies prefer to breed inside dead rodents and birds found in attics, crevices and wall voids. However, the larval stage of the flesh fly may prove beneficial to humans, as larvae feed on other pests. Flesh fly larvae feed for approximately four days. After feeding, larvae of flesh flies pupate. While some pupae remain dormant for several weeks, most species emerge as adults within 12 to 15 days. These adults measure 10 to 14 mm in length and are gray in color, with dark black or brown stripes along the thorax. |
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Large Rose Sawfly - Arge pagana John Ellis Like all sawflies, the female possesses a little saw. With which they make cuts in the fresh shoots of the host plant in which they lay several eggs. The stems later split open where the eggs were laid, leaving elongated scars on the stems. The larvae hatch quickly and move in a group to the freshly emerged leaves. Young larvae stay together for quite some time and are capable of strip garden roses of their leaves. The larvae looks like green caterpillars with black dots over its body and are up to 25mm long. When fully fed, they go into the soil to pupate. They are normally seen between March and June as they search for rose stems on which to lay its eggs. |
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Muscid Fly (female) - Graphomya maculata John F Oct 2016 If there was any doubt as to whether any of the UK's Diptera were not well marked, then this common Muscid fly should dispell any thoughts. A fairly large and distinctive species, Graphomya maculata is often found in damp areas and is generally common. |
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Green Bottle Fly - Lucilia sericata John Ellis 2020 A green metallic 'greenbottle' fly is the commonest of the very similar Lucilia species. It can be identified by the combination of 3 pairs of acrostichal bristles after the thoracic suture line, a pale basicosta and a single anterodorsal bristle on the mid tibia. It also has a wide frons and much dusting on the thorax. Popular places to find this species include on or near fruit, meat, rubbish dumps, faeces and dead animals. This fly is mainly found in the outdoors and most commonly in farm areas, but may be found indoors in colder months of the year. |
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Noon-fly - Mesembrina meridiana John F Oct 2016 Mesembrina meridiana is a species of fly, sometimes known as the noon fly. It is widespread and common between late April and late October, particularly in cattle-rearing areas. It is a large black fly with orange colouration on the base of its wings, on the feet and the face. Adults are most often seen on cow dung, basking in open ground or visiting flowers to feed upon nectar. Eggs are laid in cow dung, the larvae are carnivorous, and feed on other fly larvae within the dung. The female lays up to five eggs in a lifetime, each one in a different pat, at two-day intervals. |
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Scorpion Fly - Panorpa communis John F Wingspan approx 35 mm. It can be identified by its patterned wings and sturdy beak. The scorpion-like tail is only seen in the male and is in fact its genitalia - and doesn't sting! There are three Panorpa species in Britain and all require close examination with a microscope or good hand lens to distinguish them. In males this involves looking at the ventral surface of the genital capsule and in females the ovipositor. They feed mostly on dead insects, which they frequently steal from the webs of spiders. Mating usually occurs at night. It can be a dangerous time for the male, if he is not careful the female might decide to kill him! To avoid this he presents her with a gift of a drop of saliva which, it seems, in the world of scorpion flies, is the equivalent of a bunch of roses or a box of chocolates. John F July 2017 Took me a little while to sort this little creature out with it's large beak but then realised it's a Scorpion Fly |
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Stiletto Fly - Thereva nobilitata John F July 2017 The larvae of this family are predators of insect larvae in soil. This fly has a long hairy body with slender legs. The adults are conspicuous with their golden hairs and banded abdomen. The female abdomen in quite pointed. It can be found in hedgerows and well wooded areas where it can be found resting on vegetation, and is often netted from the foliage of bushes and trees. |
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Yellow Dung Fly - Scathophaga stercoraria John Ellis The yellow dung fly or the golden dung fly, is one of the most familiar and abundant flies in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere. As its common name suggests, it is often found on the feces of large mammals, such as horses, cattle, sheep, deer, and wild boar, where it goes to breed. The distribution of S. stercoraria is likely influenced by human agriculture, especially in Northern Europe and North America. The Scathophaga are integral in the animal kingdom due to their role in the natural decomposition of dung in fields. They are also very important in the scientific world due to their short lifecycles and susceptibility to experimental manipulations, thus have contributed significant knowledge about animal behavior. |
Bio Blitz ------ 26-06-2015 blue & black |
Added by Harry Ball St Mark's Fly - Bibio marci |