Insects by Picture
Flies by Picture
Diptera Taxonomy
Hermetia illucens - University of Florida
Hermetia illucens - Wikipedia
Hermetia illucens - BugGuide
This soldier fly was laying eggs in my compost pile on May 8, 2014. When I was making a lot of hot compost in 2014 and 2015, I would regularly see black soldier fly moms laying eggs in the compost. Shortly thereafter, many larvae would twist and turn their ways around the pile, digesting and improving the compost. I'm not sure how they are affected by the heat of the compost when it starts to cook.
Black soldier flies, known by their acronym BSF by practitioners, are sometimes used to break down livestock manure on an industrial scale. See the U. of Florida and Wikipedia articles above for more information about that.
On February 12, 2017, I found an injured black soldier fly, with one wing rendered useless. This provided a good chance to photograph an open wing.
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