Blue Snail Parasitic Blowfly - Amenia leonina

Family Calliphoridae

This page contains pictures and information about Snail Parasitic Blowflies that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Female, body length 12mm

This is the medium size Snail Parasitic Blowfly. As all the Snail Parasitic Blowfly species, they are nectar feeders and assist the flower plants for pollination. Their larvae are parasites on land snails.


Male


Female



This Snail Parasitic Blowfly species Amenia leonina can be identified as follows;
- Scutellum with three pair of marginal setae.
- Postorbits yellow to orange.
- Dark blue-green to bluish violet.
- Male frons extremely narrow more or less meeting in mid line.
- Medium in size.
- Head of male golden yellow.
- Bend of vein M obtuse, nearer to m-cu than to wing margin.





Reference:
1. Wildlife of Tropical North Queensland - Queensland Museum Publications 2000, p108.
2. Wildlife of Greater Brisbane - New edition, Published by Queensland Museum 2007, p138.
3. Morphometrics in the genus Amenia and revisionary notes on the Australian Ameniinae (Diptera: Calliphoridae), with the description of eight new species - Colless, 1998, Rec. Aust. Mus. 50(1): 85–123.
4. A systematic revision of the Ameniinae (Diptera: Calliphoridae) - Crosskey, R.W. 1965, Bull. Br. Mus. (Nat. Hist). Entomol. 16: 33-140. (23 August).