iris ✿ sandwalker👀 🪰 🍽️ 🗑️ this is rather interesting
https://agrifutures.com.au/news/turning-waste-into-protein-australias-emerging-insect-industry
ResearchBuzz: FirehoseUC Riverside: A DIY, fly-powered fix for food scraps. “UC Riverside scientists have created a small-scale system that transforms food waste into high-protein animal feed and fertilizer using black soldier flies, offering a sustainable solution to a major environmental problem.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2025/12/25/uc-riverside-a-diy-fly-powered-fix-for-food-scraps/
neville parktrying to be perceived as a normal, friendly person by nodding and smiling as an old man passes me on the sidewalk while I'm hunched over someone's bushes next to their green bin extremely suspiciously, taking photos of flies having sex
#FridayFlyDay #FlyFriday #bugstodon #insects #flies #SoldierFlies #Diptera #Stratiomyidae
#FridayFlyday: just encountered this gorgeous metallic bronze-green-blue soldier fly (family Stratiomyidae) in the garden! It was very placid and let me get lots of photos.
#flyday #FlydayFriday #bugstodon #insects #flies #SoldierFlies #Diptera #Stratiomyidae
Stephan* :birders:I saw a dragonfly this afternoon, two twigs next to it was a Stratiomys longicornis, the long-horned general. It is a European species of soldier fly.
Took a photo and back home I noticed it was laying eggs.
#Nature #NaturePhotography #flies #soldierflies
Took a photo and back home I noticed it was laying eggs.
#Nature #NaturePhotography #flies #soldierflies
Albert CardonaThe wikipedia page on black soldier flies, Hermetia illucens, is very well written and comprehensive, with details like:
"H. illucens is a mimic fly" of organ pipe mud dauber wasps, "enhanced by the fly's elongated and wasp-like antennae, pale hind tarsi, and the presence of two small, transparent "windows" in the basal abdominal segments that make the fly appear to have a narrow "wasp waist"."
"An adult female lays approximately 200 to 600 eggs at a time."
"... prepupal migration instinct [towards cool, dark, dry places] ] is used by grub composting bins to self-harvest the mature larvae."
Their large size can even prevent other flies that can produce much worse smells – and potentially carry diseases – by predating upon their larvae: "prevent houseflies and blowflies from laying eggs in decaying matter by consuming larvae of other species."
"Unlike houseflies, ... adult black soldier flies therefore do not spread pathogens or diseases."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens
Entomology ought to be a promoted, taught and valued so much more. Insects pretty much run the world. We ignore them – and destroy them – at our very own peril.
@BBCNews Black soldier flies have beautiful eyes, and their abdomens can be bright red:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/130806984
The "ugly" maggots are always hidden away, into soil. Whereas adults are beautiful and sleek, and are quite easy to recognise; with their distribution being worldwide almost certainly there are some near where you are. See a few that I've spotted:
https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/albertcardona?view=tree&details_view=observations&taxon_id=82177
Alex WildFriday Flyday!
Here's an insect I'd never seen before: Berkshiria albistylum. A tiny, poorly-known soldier fly. Hanging out in the yard just minding her own business.
#Diptera #Stratiomyidae #SoldierFlies #Insects #FridayFlyday
Axel SteinerDie Goldgrüne Waffenfliege (Chloromyia formosa) ist von der ähnlichen C. speciosa durch die bräunlichen Flügel und die hellen Knie unterscheidbar.
♀️ = mittig getrennte Augen
#natur #artenvielfalt #insekten #Diptera #nature #insects #soldierflies #Waffenfliegen #Stratiomyidae
Martin Harvey#introduction I'm an #entomologist and biological recorder, based in Buckinghamshire, UK. I work at the #UKCEH Biological Records Centre, providing data management support for my research colleagues, + the #iRecord online wildlife recording system, & liaison with brilliant UK national recording schemes.
As a volunteer I run the recording scheme for #soldierflies & allies (Stratiomyidae & related #fly families), + I'm county #moth recorder for Berkshire. #insectodon
