Post 373 - Brilliantly Coloured Super Broad Centurion Soldierfly

Broad Centurion Soldierfly (Chloromyia formosa)

Hey everyone, today's Post 373 and seeing as I have only really done 1 species since the end of my year and I thought, as it's actually snowing where I am as I'm writing this, I would bring back some of the warmer and sunnier weather by covering a nice hover-fly, specifically it's a soldierfly called the Broad Centurion or the Chloromyia formosa. Now, at school, in History we have been covering the Romans and from what I heard, a Centurain is a leader of a small group of people, so maybe this fly is a leader of some sort of family. We found it in July in Silton Forest a lovely place near us that I go walking in a lot. I thought it was a nice little thing to cover on a nice snowy December afternoon, as it is quite colourful and reminded me of Summer walks.

So, here are a couple of facts on it:

The lovely woodland edges at Silton are filled with lots of wild flowers
they have been great for finding bugs

• They are quite common around all of the United Kingdom including Ireland and all of the surrounding islands.

• They fly mostly throughout May, all of the way to the end of August but can be found a small bit outside of these times. 

• They are only 9mm long which is a tiny little thing. I don't think I've encountered a smaller fly yet. 

• Their larvae are found in cow dung, rotting grass and all of that sort thing.

• Coming from this they will be found in places like moist forests which is where I found it, there's a lovely little beck that babbles through the bit of the forest I walk in

• Their antennae are short and the first segment of their antennae is longer than the second segment.

• Larvae feed on decaying plant matter which is probably why they live in it.

• So, while the larvae feed on this, the adults feed on nectar like most insects. These ones mostly feed on Hogweed, which the one in the picture is on.

A shot further out, you can see the Hogweed stems better.

• They are found in Europe, North Africa, the Eastern side of Asia and Southern Arctic.

• The one I photographed is probably a female, they tend to be a more metallic blue green while the males are more bronzy green.

• My photo isn't quite close enough but if you see one try to get a close look at their eyes as they are very hairy.

Here are some links to some more information:

NatureSpot - Chloromyia formosa

Wikipedia - Chloromyia formosa

Wildlife Trusts - Chloromyia formosa

Hope you enjoyed,

Z.