Phaonia pallida | |
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Phaonia pallida, Female | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Diptera |
Family: | Muscidae |
Subfamily: | Phaoniinae |
Tribe: | Phaoniini |
Genus: | Phaonia |
Species: | P. pallida
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Binomial name | |
Phaonia pallida (Fabricius, 1787)
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Synonyms | |
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Phaonia pallida, the muscid fly or orange muscid fly, is a species of fly in the family Muscidae.[1]
This species is distributed across parts of the Palearctic – Europe (including Sicily and the Azores), Russia, and Asia (Israel, Turkey, and Iran).[2][3] These flies mainly inhabit deciduous forests and woodland, especially spruce forest edge.[4][5]
Phaonia pallida can reach a length of about 5.5–7.9 millimetres (0.22–0.31 in). These flies have an orange body with a very hairy thorax.[4][5] The antennae are composed by three articles and bear a feathery arista. The legs and the balancers are yellow, while the tarsi are black. The eyes are dark red, separated by a yellow marking in the females, while in males they are very close to each other.[6]
Adults fly from May to September, feeding on nectar of flowers (especially of Heracleum sphondylium).[4][5][6] Its larvae have been found growing in various fungi (Amanita rubescens, Clitocybe nebularis, Paralepista flaccida, Xerula radicata, Hymenopellis radicata, Amanita muscaria) [6] but also in rotten wood and under tree bark.[5][7] The last larval instar of Phaonia pallida is carnivorous, feeding on small insects.[5][8]