Sieve-winged snailkiller
Coremacera marginata
The sieve-winged snailkiller is a slim, dark grey fly with reddish eyes. Its grey wings are covered in pale spots. The grown-up fly is gentle, but its babies are snail hunters.
Lives in
Most of Europe and the Near East, in grassland and woodland
Length
0.7 to 1 cm (0.28 to 0.39 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
The grown-up fly sips nectar from flowers or drinks dew. Its babies hunt and eat land snails.
How big is it?
How long is it?
💅small enough to sit on your fingernail🍚as long as 1.5 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 42 seconds⚡moves 250 times its own body length every second
How big is Sieve-winged snailkiller compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Sieve-winged snailkiller about 8.9 km/h (5.5 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
It grows to 7 to 10 millimetres long.
2
Its babies, called larvae, attack and eat snails that live on land.
3
Its feelers point straight forward and have a hairy tip.
4
It belongs to a family of flies called marsh flies or snail-killing flies.
you asked
Most asked questions about Sieve-winged snailkiller
?What does the sieve-winged snailkiller eat?
The grown-up drinks nectar and dew. Its babies eat land snails.
?Is the sieve-winged snailkiller dangerous?
No. It is harmless to people. Only snails need to watch out.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Coremacera marginata
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1775
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Sciomyzidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Sciomyzidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Coremacera marginata (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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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