Sugarcane soldier fly
Inopus rubriceps
The sugarcane soldier fly is a small fly from the east of Australia. Its larvae live in the ground and chew on grass and crops. It likes warm and damp weather best.
Lives in
Eastern Australia, and now also New Zealand and California
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its larvae feed on pasture grass and crops like oats and maize.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Sugarcane soldier 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
It nibbles on fields of oats and maize, but not enough to count as a big pest.
2
People first found it in New Zealand in 1944, in a town called Ōpōtiki.
3
Tiny wasps lay their eggs inside it, and their babies grow up there.
you asked
Most asked questions about Sugarcane soldier fly
?Is the sugarcane soldier fly a pest?
A small one. It damages grass and crops a bit, but not enough to be a major pest.
?Where does the sugarcane soldier fly come from?
From southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales in Australia.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Inopus rubriceps
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Stratiomyidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Stratiomyidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, North America
- Also known as
- Australian soldier fly
Where the facts come from
- Inopus rubriceps (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: wild_wind. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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