Ti-tree Fly

Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!

Great spotting Vinny ! so happy to see another one. Well done and thanks for sharing this.

Awesome find Vinny! And wonderful info Mark. A gem!

Congratulations on this find - it is a really beautiful fly!

Yes it's a great story Vinny. The genus is a tiny Gondwanan group. Only species known are in Australia and Chile!! The larvae feed on worms around the roots of leptospermum and come out to pupate and feed on flowers in summer. I've been concerned about the rate of clearing 'swampy' ti-tree in the outer suburbs. It will wipe these out among other great stuff. I'm so pleased they are elsewhere in the state. There are some notes on my spotting.

Your absolute gold for Insect I.D Mark, much appreciated

Wow! Hard to believe such an amazing looking fly could be so little seen. Any ideas about its ecology?

...not convinced of 50mm though :-)

Congratulations!! A truly extraordinary find Vinny. You don't know how pleased I am with this. Yours is now only the second spotting I know of in the past 40 years or maybe even longer !! I found one a couple of years ago and it took six months of digging through dusty Victoria museum papers to ID it. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/160...