Striped dung fly
The striped dung fly has black and yellow stripes running along its back from head to tail. Its legs are so bristly that they look almost fluffy. It grows up in animal poo on farms, which sounds yucky but helps clean up the fields.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The mother lays her eggs in dung, and the maggots eat it for about three weeks.
When the maggots are big enough, they dig into the soil under the dung and change into grown-up flies.
It came from South America and now lives all over New Zealand.
House sparrows and greenfinches like to eat it.
Most asked questions about Striped dung fly
?Is the striped dung fly dangerous?
Not to people. It does not bite or sting, but it can carry tapeworm eggs that make dogs and sheep ill.
?What does the striped dung fly eat?
Its maggots eat animal dung and compost.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Oxysarcodexia varia
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Sarcophagidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Sarcophagidae
- Lives on
- South America, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Striped dung fly (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 iNaturalist NZ user: jacqui-nz. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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