Odontomyia opertanea
A soldier fly at Bruce, ACT
Identify this sighting
| Odontomyia opertanea | MichaelMulvaney | Yesterday | |
| Odontomyia decipiens | CarbonAI | Yesterday | |
| Odontomyia (genus) | TimL | Yesterday |
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User's notes
The Soldier fly’s eyes are dichoptic meaning they don’t meet at the medial dorsal line of the head. I understand this identifies the fly as a female. (Males have holoptic eyes which meet at the medial dorsal line, a feature that apparently helps them to detect and pursue females during in-flight courtship). I believe the intricate coloured patterns of this Soldier fly's eyes have functions including acting as optical filters (similar to sunglasses) and being sensitive to different light wavelengths, which helps with colour perception and object identification. This appears to be natural selection at work, enhancing the fly’s chance of survival and thereby reproduction.
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Location information
- Places Bruce, ACT
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- TimL Recorded by
- 12mm to 25mm Animal size
Collections
- TimL NatureMapr Canberra & Southern Tablelands Latest Odontomyia opertanea Other true flies True flies (Diptera) Insects
Species information
- Odontomyia opertanea Scientific name
- A soldier fly Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 659.86m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
6 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species