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Project Noah Nature School
Sarcophaga sp.
A type of fly with red, wild-type eyes. As the name suggests, it feeds on decomposing flesh (but also on live animal wounds, detritus, fruits and nectar).
Riverside forest in a rural area.
Many thanks to PN user, Tukup, for the ID! I was unaware that flesh flies are not only the vector for intestinal pseudomyiasis but also carriers of the bacilli (rod-shaped bacteria) responsible for leprosy.
Hadn't thought about the etymology of the genus name. I agree. Sometimes "descriptive" names are a little too descriptive :-) Thanks Mauna.
Fabulous, Tukup! Thanks for the positive ID. What creepy genus and common names, lol.
Hi Mauna. Checking out the insects of New York https://www.insectidentification.org/ins..., I came up with a short list of possibles. I think based on the color around the eye, the color of the segmented body through the wings, the reddish brown tip of the abdomen, I believe it is a Flesh Fly. If you compare yours to the foto in the link in the ID suggestion box, it looks like a match. Wiki says, “Generally, only males of this family can reliably be identified to species, and then only by examination of dissected genitalia.” Since your picture doesn’t seem to show that :-) I have left the suggestion at the Genus level.
Spotted on Sep 15, 2012
Submitted on Sep 18, 2012
+1
