Parasitic Blowfly
Maroon,S1 Female, profile (cleaning eye)
Parasitic Blowfly
Green, S5 Female, anterior
Parasitic Blowfly (Amenia leonina)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Flies (Diptera)
Family: Blow Fly (Calliphoridae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Parasitic Blowfly (Amenia leonina)
This Photo:     Green, S1 Male, anterior

Thank you Tony Daley for identifying this species for us

General Species Information:
~10 to ~11mm long. The genders can separated by the eye separation at the top; male eyes nearly touch at the top.
They appear metallic green to maroon. We originally considered they were different species, but with Tony's help we've been able to show they are one species (well S12 & S14 definately are)
You could easily be forgiven for thinking these were bees, as they scour the Melaleuca flowers. They're quite timid so hard to get close enough to see details
Tony Daley said that while "A. leonina has pale yellow or golden postorbits, so does A. albomaculata."
In relation to S12, male, Tony said "I can see only three pairs of scutellar marginal bristles. This would be part of the leonina group, ie A. leonina and A. albomaculata". Further "For male A. leonina: head not noticeably wide (compared to thorax), and the postorbits not obliterated (represent by the pollinose strips). For both sexes of that species, tergite 3 (2nd visible tergite) completely lacking any medial marginal strong differentiated marginal setae. A. albomaculata have at least one of the medial setae on tergite 3 developed.". The 3 pairs mentioned or lateral pairs, not longitudinal pairs. So they are the 6 bristles pointing out the rear of the scuttelum.
Without more detailed photo's we can't be sure all the specimens here are Amenia leonina, but S12 is. Tony has also confirmed S14 is as well. They are all Amenia. We'll review all our photo's and see if can find a male & female of the species, with diagnostic photo's.
We photographed 20 (13 Maroon, 7 Green) specimens in Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Nov & Dec.
