Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Hermetia illucens - Black Soldier Fly

Segmented Bugs - Hermetia illucens Unknown insect - Hermetia illucens Fly - Hermetia illucens Some kind of fly, with very interesting eyes - Hermetia illucens Fly - Hermetia illucens Bee, Wasp, or other? - Hermetia illucens Hermetia illucens? - Hermetia illucens Black Soldier Fly? - Hermetia illucens
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Orthorrhapha)
Infraorder Stratiomyomorpha
Family Stratiomyidae (Soldier flies)
Subfamily Hermetiinae
Genus Hermetia
Species illucens (Black Soldier Fly)
Other Common Names
In Australia the species is called the American Soldier Fly.
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus)
Orig. Comb: Musca illucens Linnaeus 1758
Explanation of Names
illucens (L). 'shining in, illuminating' (refers to the window-like areas on the abdomen)
Size
15-20 mm (NCSU)
Identification
Large soldier fly, all black with bright white tarsi. Underneath, first abdominal segment has clear areas. Wings have purplish sheen.


Likely a wasp mimic; it buzzes loudly. See Trypoxylon politum (left) and T. lactitarse (right) as candidate model species.
Range
e US to CA, also OR, WA (BG data)
Wide ranging in Western Hemisphere, also in Australasia, Africa, Japan, Europe. Commercially distributed for composting.
Probably native to tropical America, reaching Florida by 1881, New York City by 1945, and Ontario by 2007.
Habitat
commonly breeds in outdoor toilets, compost and in poultry manure. Larvae occur in greatest densities in moist rather than wet or dry media. (NCSU)
Season
adults mostly fly: May-Oct (BG data)
Food
Adults are capable of ingesting and processing food such as sugary media, as well as possibly regurgitation.
Life Cycle
Larvae live in compost, dung, rotting vegetation
Remarks
Though they may be a nuisance, soldier flies do not bite. (NCSU)
The claim that adults of these flies do not transmit agents of disease needs to be tested. As the adults can feed, possibly regurgitate, and produce excrement, it still remains possible that they can transmit pathogens like the house fly (Graczyk et al., 2001; Bruno et al., 2019).
Print References
Tomberlin J., Sheppard C., Joyce J.A. (2005) Black soldier fly (Diptera: Stratiomyidae) colonization of pig carrion in South Georgia. J. Forensic Sci. 50(1): 152-153.
Marshall, S. A. et al. 2007. The historical spread of the black soldier fly Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera, Stratiomyidae, Hermetiinae), and its establishment in Canada. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 146:51-54 (https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/eso/article/view/3696)
Bruno, D., Bonelli, M., Cadamuro, A.G. (2019). The digestive system of the adult Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae): morphological features and functional properties. Cell Tissue Res 378, 221–238.
Graczyk TK, Knight R, Gilman RH, Cranfield MR (2001) The role of non-biting flies in the epidemiology of human infectious diseases. Microbes Infect 3:231–235
Internet References
Fact sheets: NCSU | TAMU | Oregon St.