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Project Noah Nature School
Bibio hortulanus
Bright yellow/orange body, head area more a red/orange in colour. it was about 10mm long and had 6 black sturdy legs with tiny grabbing bits on the ends (like you'd find on a Christmas Beetle), it might be some sort of nectar eater as it had a long ish black snout, and though you can see through it's wing they to are black.
It was in my back yard in the lawn. Larvae live in soil or plants, feeds on decaying plant materials.
The common name 'March Fly' may course some confusion as it refers to Horse Flies in Australia. In Europe and North America, the term 'March fly' is applied to the family Bibionidae. In Australia, 'March fly' is for another fly family Tabanidae.
Spotted on Nov 4, 2012
Submitted on Nov 2, 2012
2 Comments
I have being becoming more and more unsure of the identity of this one myself lately, I was just going to return it to the un-identified list when I saw your message. Thanks for the information, I'll definitely check out your links. :-)
Hi sara... you might want to have another look at this one. Three of us argued over it for days and we renamed our from Plecia amplipennis to Bibio hortulanus (which is an introduced one unfortunately). They look pretty much the same except for a few features but the main one is the female Plecia has ablack abdomen not orange. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/158... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/162... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/156... and the male Plecia looks like a small version of the female where B. hortulanus looks very different... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/159...