Ginger Bristle Fly

Description:

A largish fly of the Tachinidae family or parasitic flies. A NZ native, it has a striped thorax, large orange patches on each side of its abdomen and stiff black bristles covering most of its body.

Habitat:

Usually found flying over grassland but often seen around open native scrub areas visiting flowers. In this case Hebe stricta.

Notes:

An interesting, if gory life cycle. Like all bristle flies, the larval stage is carried out within the body of a live host. With this species, the adult drops live maggots and these seek out Pornia Moth caterpillars where they then bore themselves inside and devour their host eating the non vital bits first. Considered beneficial as a chemical free control of many insect pests..