2 Wingless Soldier Fly at Braemar, NSW
Identification history
| Boreoides subulatus | 14 Apr 2025 | Curiosity | ||
| Boreoides subulatus | 14 Apr 2025 | Curiosity |
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User's notes
This pair of soldier flies was on our garden shed. As I watched and photographed, a wasp briefly landed on the pair, dislodging the male. Later in the day I saw a similar wasp land on another female's abdomen. When the wasp flew away, a drop of turquoise-coloured liquid was where the wasp had been.
7 comments
Curiosity
wrote:
15 Apr 2025
Hi, and thanks, GlossyGal. I was surprised and disturbed by the wasps attacking the soldier flies.
GITM1
wrote:
15 Apr 2025
Very interesting. I have heard of wasps doing that to caterpillars and laying their eggs inside, but I never knew they did that to Soldier Flies
Curiosity
wrote:
16 Apr 2025
Hi GITM1. I, too, have wondered why the wasps were attaching the soldier flies. Canberra NatureMapr has a good description of the behaviour for Vespula germanica (European Wasp). After reading it, I think the wasps' attacks on the soldier flies could be just an example of their usual aggressive behaviour toward other insects. I've been seeing quite a few of these social wasps around the yard & nearby.
AlisonMilton
wrote:
16 Apr 2025
Hi, Yesterday I watched a European Wasp attacking a European Honey Bee in the grass on my front lawn. It came back several times and it seemed the bee was slowly dying as it struggled in the grass for some time. By the time I got my camera the wasp didn't come back. I presumed that since the wasps like sweet things that it might have been stealing the pollen from the bee, but killed the bee in the process.
Aussiegall
wrote:
16 Apr 2025
Interesting observations. Curiosity if you have been seeing quite a few euro wasps I would be concerned that there was a nest nearby. We had a nest in our compost heap which I didn't know about until I went to turn it over. Fortunately, I only got bitten once. It might be worth having a scout around to see if you could locate the nest and get rid of it. We ended up getting a pest control guy to come in, too many Euro wasps for my liking for me to tackle. After he dusted the nest and they had died, he dug the nest up, it was a massive nest, bigger than a netball
Curiosity
wrote:
16 Apr 2025
@AlisonMilton, wow - interesting observation and interpretation. And thanks @Aussiegall for your good suggestion. Given these examples of the aggressiveness of the wasps, I need to be on the lookout for a nest.
Location information
- Coordinates 150.474918-34.433726
- Places Braemar, NSW
Sighting information
- 3 Abundance
- 3 Apr 2025 09:56 AM Recorded on
- Curiosity Recorded by
-
Collections
Curiosity NatureMapr Southern Highlands Other true flies True flies (Diptera) Insects Boreoides subulatus
Additional information
- wasp - Vespula (genus) Associated animal
- 25mm to 50mm Animal size
- Mixed Gender
Species information
- Boreoides subulatus Scientific name
- Wingless Soldier Fly Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1824.81m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes