Scarab Fly - Cardiacera sp.

Family Pyrgotidae

This page contains pictures and information about Scarab Flies in family Pyrgotidae that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Body length 8mm

This fly looks similar to those in family PLATYSTOMATIDAE and TEPHRITIDAE. We determined it is in the family PYRGOTIDAE by its wing veins patterns (Sc vein reaching the wing margin at a sharp right angle) and its absent of incurved lower fronto-orbital bristles.

Not much is known about their larvae. It is believed that all the Pyrgotid larvae are parasites of adult Scarab Beetles.



We saw those flies near Bulimba Creek in Wishart on early summer Oct 2007. There were a number of them there on a large tree trunk. Some of them were courting. The courting pair were facing each other, sometimes with tongue touching.



Male and female are a little bit different. They were dark brown in colour with brown patterns on wings.


A close up of their long tongue.

Near those flies we found a batch of insect eggs. Could they be the eggs of those flies? We are not sure. Just leave the photo here for further study. (Later we found that those egg-shells look like the Assassin Bug eggs.)



Reference information explained that all Scarab Flies in family Pyrgotidae are nocturnal. This may explain why we seldom saw them except in the mating season when they are courting on the tree trunk.




After a few days (still Oct 2007), we also saw those flies in Karawatha Forest. They seem quite common in this time of the year, but not seen at other time.



Reference:
1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p717.
2. On the Fly, The Interactive Atlas and Key to Australian Fly Families CD Rom - Hamilton, J. et al. 2006. Brisbane : CBIT & ABRS.
3. Northern Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.
4. A review of Australian Pyrgotidae (Diptera) - By SJ Paramonov, 1958, Australian Journal of Zoology 6(1) 89 - 138.