Monday, 13 February 2012

Meet a Metallic Snail Parasite

This beautiful fly is a parasite of native snails. It is in the Blowfly family, Calliphoridae and in the genus Amenia, probably A. leonina. These flies make ideal photographic subjects because they are not easily frightened by the photographer. A range of Snail Blowflies can be seen on the website.
The bristles on the head form distinct patterns that help in identifying species in the genus. The small black patch on top of the head comprises a few ocelli, a topic covered in several previous blogs.
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3 comments:

  1. Snail13 February 2012 at 23:21

    They are spectacular, although I am, of course, appalled at their life cycle.

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  2. HomeBugGardener19 February 2012 at 04:23

    You have to wonder about the orange head, or perhaps the contrast between the head and body. I've seen several different kinds of muscoid flies with heads strikingly differently coloured (white, orange, red) from their bodies.

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  3. HomeBugGardener19 February 2012 at 04:23

    You have to wonder about the orange head, or perhaps the contrast between the head and body. I've seen several different kinds of muscoid flies with heads strikingly differently coloured (white, orange, red) from their bodies.

    ReplyDelete