Green Flower Fly

Edit: Mollyblobs was bang-on with her ID of this fly.  I sent photos of it to the Canterbury Museum and Dr Simon Pollard said it is a soldier fly, a Stratiomyid, exactly as she had said.


I have not been able to identify this fly. Last month I found one like it and put it in my Blipfolio.  Mollyblobs identified it as a soldier fly.  However, it is not the New Zealand native green soldier fly because I also got  of one them today and could see the differences.  The green soldier fly has a shiny green metallic  thorax, rather than a hairy brown one.  This fly is about the same size (1 cm) and shape, but to my untrained eye it looks more like an over grown hover fly.

Whatever it is the fly is rather pretty.  Note the bright green haltere, the little bobble thing that helps the fly to keep its balance.  The eyes have a horizontal line that is very obvious in face-on shots. Large

Thick low cloud persists, so there is no full moon, no lunar eclipse, and there is no end in sight to the gloom.

My two years ago today shot is rather nice- pot marigolds refracted in raindrops.