Whilst out on an unsuccessful hoverfly expedition, an interesting looking fly spiked Karin’s curiosity. After scooping it up and bringing it back to the lab, further examination revealed it to be the flesh fly, Sarcophaga.
Excited to try out a new fly on my set-up, I immediately prepped the fly and started an experiment assuming that the eyes, as per usual, were the tell-tale sign for differentiating the flies gender, however after collecting my results, a quick google search revealed that this is not the case at all!
Distinguishing between male and female Sarcophaga can be a near impossible task when relying on the outward appearance alone. Most reliable differentiation is typically determined by microscopic examination of the genitalia!
Whilst the gender of the first fly will forever remain a mystery, Sarah and myself were lucky enough to catch another one today! Although neither of us were keen to conduct the microscopic examination, we did manage to take some photos…. However, the question still remains: boy, or girl?