Hermetia illucens
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| Black Soldier Fly | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hermetia illucens Linnaeus, 1758 |
The Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) is a common and widespread member of the family Stratiomyidae, and quite possibly the best-known species in the entire infraorder. There are several reasons for this:
- The larvae are common scavengers in compost heaps
- The larvae can be destructive pests in honeybee hives
- The larvae are used in manure management, for both house fly control and reduction in manure volume, and the mature larvae and prepupae raised in manure management operations are themselves useful as feed supplements[1]
- The larvae are found in association with carrion, and have significant potential for use in forensic entomology[2].
- The larvae may sometimes cause intestinal myiasis or pseudomyiasis in humans. See this case in Costa Rica[1]
- The larvae are sometimes sold as live pet food under the names Phoenix Worms and Soldier Grubs for owners of herps and tropical fish. They store high levels of calcium for future pupation which is beneficial to herps[3]. Phoenix worms were first developed as a feeder species by Insect Science Resource.
The larvae range in size from 1/8 to 3/4 of an inch (3 to 19 millimeters). Although they can be stored at room temperature for several weeks, their longest shelf life is achieved at 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 15 degrees Celsius).
The adult fly is a mimic, very close in size, color, and appearance to the organ pipe mud dauber wasp and its relatives. The mimicry of this particular kind of wasp is especially enhanced in that the fly's antennae are elongated and wasp-like, the fly's hind tarsi are pale, as are the wasp's, and the fly has two small transparent "windows" in the basal abdominal segments that make it look like the fly has a narrow "wasp waist".
[edit] References
- ^ Sheppard, D.C. (1992). "Large-scale Feed Production from Animal Manures with a Non-Pest Native Fly". Food Insects Newsletter 5 (2).
- ^ Lord, W.D., Goff, M.L., Adkins, T.R., and Haskell, N.H. (1994). "The black soldier fly Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) as a potential measure of human postmortem interval: observations and case histories". J. Forensic Sci. 39: 215–222.
- ^ "The Incredible Edible Worm", by Audrey Pavia, Reptiles Magazine, July, 2007
