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Fly Pirates
Bengalia
Bengalia is a genus of blow flies in the family Calliphoridae with one authority considering the genus to belong to a separate family Bengaliidae. These bristly and, unlike the greens and blues of most calliphorids, dull coloured flies, are especially noted for their relationship to ants. Little is known of their biology and life-cycle, although adults of many species are kleptoparasitic on ants and will snatch food and pupae being carried by ants or feed on winged termites.
The apt name “Highwayman Fly” was given by an early observer of their way of robbing ants.
19 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Bengalia escheri
speciesBengalia escheri
Bengalia torosa
speciesBengalia torosa
Bengalia emdeniella
speciesBengalia emdeniella
Bengalia chekiangensis
speciesBengalia chekiangensis
Bengalia calilungae
speciesBengalia calilungae
Bengalia arawakia
speciesBengalia arawakia
Bengalia racovitzai
speciesBengalia racovitzai
Bengalia spinifemorata
speciesBengalia spinifemorata
Bengalia vicina
speciesBengalia vicina
Bengalia walkeriana
speciesBengalia walkeriana
Bengalia croceipalpis
speciesBengalia croceipalpis
Bengalia cuthbertsoni
speciesBengalia cuthbertsoni
Bengalia floccosa
speciesBengalia floccosa
Bengalia gaillardi
speciesBengalia gaillardi
Bengalia fani
speciesBengalia fani
Bengalia smarti
speciesBengalia smarti
Bengalia fuscipennis
speciesBengalia fuscipennis
Bengalia peuhi
speciesBengalia peuhi
Termite Pirate
speciesBengalia depressa
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Bengalia in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 83732.