Sarcophaga carnaria

Grey flesh fly ( Sarcophaga carnaria )

The Grey flesh fly ( Sarcophaga carnaria ) is a fly from the family of flesh-flies ( Sarcophagidae ).

Features

The animals have a body length of 8 to 19 mm. They are colored light gray, have the thorax dark gray longitudinal stripes on the abdomen and a chessboard-like pattern of light and dark gray squares. From the side of the saw head is square shaped, the end is forward. The male is narrow, those of the females is wide and has two pairs of strong orbital bristles. The red compound eyes are hairless. The cheeks and the back of the head are white hand, long, hairy on the upper side black. To the sensors, the third bristle is longer than the second. The wings bristle is long haired. The sternites of the third and fourth segments are almost completely covered by the tergites.

Of the related species of the genus, the species is, however, only genitalmorphologisch distinguishable. The larva has not been described.

Occurrence

The flies come in the Palaearctic ago, north to northern Norway and the Kola Peninsula, east through southern Siberia to Lake Baikal. They are preferably found along forest edges, but are rather light- loving ( heliophilic ) and steer clear of the forest interior.

Way of life

The adults often fly to flowers and can be found on this. The gray flesh fly, as almost all flesh flies, viviparous ( larvipar ), ie the female lays on the host newly hatched young larvae, eggs, from. Larvae of the species evolve, probably exclusively, as parasitoids of earthworms. Information from carrion almost certainly be based on misidentifications. The species is therefore irrelevant to the Forensic Entomology. Like many other flesh flies they can at a high density of fly maggots to predatory diet (from other maggots ) pass (so-called schizophage nutrition).

The gray flesh fly has several generations per year.