Can anyone ID this fly species?

Matt Kogler · Can anyone ID this fly species?

These are fly's I am currently battling in my T room. Anyone know what they are?

cacoseraph

snipe fly?

http://bugguide.net/node/view/121560

my first guess was phorid, though, cuz of the humped back

rosenkrieger

A friend of mine is actually breeding these to feed baby mantids and toads. He sais they are Megaselia scalaris. Coffin Flies.

Here is what he said to me:
"They're great mantid food and they breed on anything.
They're an invasive established species from Asia.
Very hard to get rid of seeing as they'll breed on anything."

a1_collection

rosenkrieger

Matt Kogler

No I didn't, they came in some substrate and now their in everything!!! Little bastards!

Steven

Now and then i get something similar ...like giant fruit flys with stripes and they always come from jars/enclosures with lots of feeder carcasses. I just call them "meat flies" (as opposed to "fruit flies").

Ive half-arsed attempted to raise some and it worked up until the temps cooled down and then suddenly nil new hatches.
Anywho...very meaty, but hard to use as feeders because of their erratic/speedy flying maneuvers. Best method i found was to get em into a jar and stick em in the fridge for a spell til they shut down a bit.

balam

after reading the write-up on these guys they seem.. how can I put it?. . . Interesting?

Apparently they are known as "coffin fly"... because they dig down to 6' to the coffins to eat.

In humans this may result in inflamed skin, oh yeah, I didn't mention, they are also known to feed on wounds.

It is also used in court as an indicative of certain level of neglect or abuse.

But that's unfair to the fly, because after all she is omnivorous, and can feed on fluid from both plats and humanos.

And it can also thrive well in areas where there isn't carrion.
(But it is very prolific in areas with decaying matter and/or filth).

Are they still around?