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Graphomyia maculata

Graphomyia maculata is a very beautiful member of the House Fly family. It is a rather colourful fly. For identification purposes look at the colours and the build of the fly and pay attention to the veins in the wings. In the top two pictures a male and as with many other fly species males can be seperated from females by looking at the eyes. Males have big eyes hardly separated from oneanother, while females have much smaller eyes, clearly sranding apart. In this case though, the distinction also lies in the colouring: the females are greyish white with dark markings. The males of this species are more colourful than the females: on the abdomen they have orange spots, which the females don't have. The males are very variable though: in some the abdomen is almost entirely orange, while others have very small orange markings only. The larvae live in moist dead leaves and are hunters.

The species still is on debate. There might be a very similar species: Graphomyia minor. The difference between the two is in the legs. And usually the males of Graphomyia minor has less orange spots on the abdomen. And from that we can conclude that the animal in the picture could be Graphomyia minor. But according to some scientists, like N. E. Vikhrev, it is one and the same highly variable species. In this case it is of no interest though, for according to this expert the fly in the picture is Graphomyia maculata anyway!

In the top pictures the male, in the bottom pictures the female.