Lateral view

Male frons width (blue arrow) in respect to anterior ocellus (red arrow) in Calliphora fallax (upper) and Calliphora hilli hilli (bottom)

Australian distribution

Taxonomy

Family: Calliphoridae

Subfamily: Calliphorinae

Genus: Calliphora Robineau-Desvoidy 1830

Subgenus: Paracalliphora Townsend 1916

Species: fallax Hardy 1930*

 

The immature stages are unknown.

Biology

Calliphora fallax is also recorded as the subspecies Calliphora hilli fallax (Kurahashi 1989), however, allozyme markers suggest that it is a full species (Wallman and Adams 1997).

Fuller (1932) reared this species from live sheep, however, it is likely that this species has been commonly misidentified as Calliphora stygia or C. hilli hilli.

Calliphora fallax is morphologically very similar to C. hilli hilli, with the medial hairs on the 5th abdominal tergite being predominantly black, whereas these hairs are predominantly, or at least  partially yellow in C. hilli hilli. Male C. fallax can be readily distinguished by the minimum frons width being less than twice the width of the anterior ocellus, whereas in male C. hilli hilli the minimum frons width is greater than twice the width of the anterior ocellus (see picture). To determine the gender of your fly click here.

Distribution

Calliphora fallax has been recorded from the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland.

Relevant Literature

Kurahashi, H. (1989) 'Family Calliphoridae'. In: Evenhius, N. L. (ed.) Catalog of the Diptera of the Australasian and Oceanian Regions. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Fuller, M.E. (1932) The larvae of the Australian sheep blowflies. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 57, 77-91.

Wallman, J.F. and Adams, M. (1997) Molecular systematics of Australian carrion-breeding blowflies of the genus Calliphora (Diptera: Calliphoridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 45, 337-356.