Spotted marsh fly
Trypetoptera punctulata
The spotted marsh fly is a small fly from Europe and Asia. Most of its relatives like wet marshes, but this one prefers drier places like woods and grassland. And its babies have a very special menu: snails.
Lives in
Europe and Asia, in woods on limestone, grassland and along streams
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a small fly that does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
Its larvae hunt and eat land snails, from the same family as the garden snail.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Spotted marsh fly about 8 km/h (5 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Flies in its family are often called snail-killing flies because their larvae feed on snails.
2
Unlike most of its relatives, it lives in dry places, especially woods on chalky limestone ground.
3
You can also find it on grassland and along the edges of streams.
you asked
Most asked questions about Spotted marsh fly
?What does the spotted marsh fly eat?
Its larvae eat land snails.
?Where does the spotted marsh fly live?
In Europe and Asia, in dry woods, grassland and along streams.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trypetoptera punctulata
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Sciomyzidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Sciomyzidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Trypetoptera punctulata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Janet Graham. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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