Small Blue Fly - Hydrotaea (Ophyra) chalcogaster
Family Muscidae
This page contains pictures and information about Small Bush Flies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 5mm, male
- This small fly is bluish-black in colour with hairless eyes. The wing vein M is straight. The dorsocentrals (seta on thorax) is 2+4. Male is holoptic. The legs are black in colour with pale tips to the tarsal segments. Mid tibia has a strong ventral seta. Wings are clear with veins on yellow.
- Male
- We usually found them rest on leaves in dense forest. However, we also found them in our backyard.
- We received the email from
Susan Walter and advised that " I think your mystery Blue Fly is a muscid. It is a calyptrate fly, as you can see the thoracic suture. Some male muscids have those very large red eyes and because of the metallic sheen, I am thinking that may be it is something like Ophyra sp. I'm afraid these rejoice under the common name of Black Garbage Flies or Dump Flies, so that gives you an idea of where they like to breed. They also breed in dung. As well as resting in the shade, did you also notice them persistently hovering in shafts of sunlight? That is another characteristic of this muscid genera and also the rather similar Fannia (which is sometimes listed as Muscidae and sometimes given its own family of Fannidae). Fannia are less metallic though. From these photos, I don't think anyone will be able to give you an ID to species level. You may already know this, but the photo top right is of a female and the one bottom left is male." 
- Reference:
- 1. A field guide to insects in Australia - By Paul Zborowski and Ross Storey, Reed New Holland, 1996, p146.
- 2. Key to the Australasian and Oceanian genera of Muscidae (Diptera) - Márcia Souto Couri, Departamento de Entomologia, Museu Nacional, 20940-040 Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil.
- 3. Studies on Australian Muscidae (Diptera). IV. A revision of the subfamilies Muscinae and Stomoxyinae - AC Pont, Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 21(21) 129 - 296, 1973.
