Green Snail Parasitic Blowfly - Amenia chrysmae

Family Calliphoridae

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


Female, body length 10mm

This is the smallest Snail Parasitic Blowfly that we found. They are always emerald or cupreous green in colours.


Male


Female



This Snail Parasitic Blowfly species Amenia chrysmae can be identified as follows;
- Scutellum with three pair of marginal setae.
- Postorbits silvery white.
- Emerald or cupreous green.
- Male frons narrow but distinct to the ocelli.
- with pair of median marginal bristles on abdominal T3
- Smallest in size.



Females give birth large and well developed larvae. It is known that their larvae are parasites on land snails.



On Nov 2010, we found this female Snail Parasitic Fly searching on the ground among the plant materials in Karawatha Forest.








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).