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Hermetia illucens

Hermetia illucens
Hermetiaillucens.jpg
Hermetia illucens MHNT Fronton.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Suborder: Brachycera
Infraorder: Tabanomorpha
Superfamily: Stratiomyoidea
Family: Stratiomyidae
Subfamily: Hermetiinae
Genus: Hermetia
Species: H. illucens
Binomial name
Hermetia illucens
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Hermetia illucens, the black soldier fly, is a common and widespread fly of the family Stratiomyidae. The larvae and adults are considered neither pests nor vectors. Instead, black soldier fly larvae play a similar role to that of redworms as essential decomposers in breaking down organic substrates and returning nutrients to the soil.

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are an excellent source of sustainable protein for aquaculture, animal feed, and pet and human nutrition. The larvae have voracious appetites and can be used for composting household food scraps and agricultural waste products.

An adult Black Soldier Fly female lays between 600-800 eggs at a time. These eggs are typically deposited in crevices or on surfaces above or adjacent to decaying matter such as manure or compost hatch into larvae in approximately four days. Black Soldier Fly larvae can be differentiated from blowfly or housefly larvae by a thin gray-black stripe on the posterior end. These larvae eat and grow for 10-14 days until they enter the pre-pupal stage, when they begin to turn a brownish color. After about a week they enter the pupal stage, when they are at their nutritional peak. The larvae range in size from 1834 inch (3–19 mm). Although they can be stored at room temperature for several weeks, their longest shelf life is achieved at 50–60 °F (10–16 °C).

The adult fly, which measures about 16 mm (5/8 inch), has a life span of 5 to 8 days. It is a mimic, very close in size, color, and appearance to the organ pipe mud dauber wasp and its relatives. The mimicry of this particular kind of wasp is especially enhanced in that the fly's antennae are elongated and wasp-like, the fly's hind tarsi are pale, as are the wasp's, and the fly has two small transparent "windows" in the basal abdominal segments that make the fly appear to have a narrow "wasp waist". The adult soldier fly has no functioning mouthparts (although can ingest water); it spends its time searching for mates and reproducing.


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Wikipedia

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