Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Unnamed spotting

Description:

red-tan fungus growing from between the body segments of blow fly

Habitat:

Calliphoridae sp.

Notes:

The fungus enters the blow fly's brain and causes it to land upside down on the bottom of leaves and spread its wings before the fungus kills the fly. I had hundreds of flies like this in my front and back garden. A friend 6-7 blocks away did not so the epidemic may have been highly local. Since blow flies love our compost bin when meat is put into it and the highest concentration of dead flies was very near our compost bin, perhaps the flies were infected in our compost. the photo with the desicated eyes (5th) is the most spooky Entomophthora sp.?

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

No Comments

brettpim
Spotted by
brettpim

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Spotted on Aug 5, 2015
Submitted on Sep 4, 2015

Nearby Spottings

Black Swallowtail Blue Mud Dauber Spotting Oak Gall Wasp

Reference

Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team