Milichiidae (family)

Freeloader fly at Hackett, ACT

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Identification history

	Milichiidae (family)	26 Mar 2019	MichaelMulvaney
	Milichiidae (family)	24 Mar 2019	TimL

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User's notes

A follow-up sighting to 4202969. The Garden Orb Weaver spider was wrapping up prey whilst the flies burrowed into the silk wrapping. The first image shows a fly sitting on the prey blowing a bubble of stomach contents whilst another fly presumably lays eggs on the silk wrapped prey. The final image shows the fly starting to exit the wrapping. This fly was observed entering the wrapping and then emerging 2 1/2 minutes later. This behaviour has been observed before with this particular spider and this type of fly so presumably it's quite common behaviour.

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Location information

Coordinates 149.107513 -35.274729
Maps ANBG
Places Hackett, ACT

Sighting information

4 Abundance
22 Mar 2019 12:08 PM Recorded on
TimL Recorded by
Collections
Insects True flies (Diptera) Other true flies TimL Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr

Additional information

5mm to 12mm Animal size

Species information

Milichiidae (family) Scientific name
Freeloader fly Common name
Not Sensitive
Local native
Non-invasive or negligible
Up to 784.8m Recorded at altitude
Machine learning
External link More information

Record quality

Images or audio
More than one media file
Verified by an expert moderator
Nearby sighting(s) of same species
GPS evidence of location
Description
Additional attributes

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Queensland

Northern Territory

Western Australia

South Australia

Victoria

Tasmania