Snail Parasitic Blowfly - Amenia imperialis
Family Calliphoridae
This page contains pictures and information about Snail Parasitic Blowflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 15mm
- This large Blowfly is metallic dark blue-green in colour with the bright orange-yellow colour face. On the thorax and abdomen there are the shiny white spots patterns. Different individuals may have slightly different patterns.
- Male Female
- This fly is nectar feeder and assist the flower plants for pollination.
- Pictures were taken in Alexandra Hill and Karawatha Forest during mid summer. We usually found them in the forest near the creek. They usually rest on tree trunk heading downwards, about a meter from ground. It seemed that they are waiting or looking for something.
- Female give birth large and well developed larvae. It is known that their larvae are parasites of land snails.
- Quite often we found different species of large flies resting on large trunk. This other green fly is the Green Parasitic Tachinid.
- Sometimes we found this fly flying and searching on rotten wood. We believed it was the female looking for parasite host, snails, for laying eggs onto them.
- Reference:
- 1. Wildlife of Tropical North Queensland - Queensland Museum Publications 2000, p108.
- 2. Wildlife of Greater Brisbane - New edition, Published by Queensland Museum 2007, p138.
- 1. Wildlife of Tropical North Queensland - Queensland Museum Publications 2000, p108.
