A strange predator of nature - the Cylindromyia fly

Latin Name	Observation Date	Location
Cylindromyia	Jun 01, 2026	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

The greatest joy of macro photography is that it gives us the opportunity to see a strange and beautiful world unseen before our eyes. There are thousands of surprises hidden in every corner of nature.

Today, for the friends of Nature Observer, we have come up with a picture of such a great but strange-natured insect. Although it looks like an ordinary fly, its life cycle is quite exciting. Let's find out some information about this small insect:

​Name: This insect is usually called a parasitic fly or tachinid fly.
​Scientific name and genus: Since many of its species look exactly the same, it is scientifically known as its genus or genus Cylindromyia rather than a specific species.
​Family: They belong to the Tachinidae family of the insect kingdom, which is a large group of parasitic flies.

​Size: They are quite small, usually 6 to 15 millimeters long. Their abdomen is quite long and narrow. There is a beautiful red and black zebra pattern or spots on the abdomen, which makes them easily distinguishable from other flies.

​Habitat and habitat: Adult flies are usually found in open areas with weeds.

​Food: Adult flies usually roam around flowers and survive by eating honey or nectar from flowers.

​Reproduction: They are mainly parasitoids. They target other insects such as caterpillars, bedbugs or beetles to reproduce and lay eggs on their bodies. After the eggs hatch and the larvae emerge, they slowly grow by eating the insides of the host insect.

​Benefits: They are of great benefit to us due to their unique reproduction process. They lay eggs in the bodies of caterpillars and other harmful insects that are harmful to crops and eventually kill them. As a result, harmful insects are controlled naturally, which is quite beneficial for the farmer.

​Disadvantages: They do not have any significant disadvantages. They do not cause any harm to humans or crops, but rather maintain the natural balance by destroying harmful insects.

​It is truly surprising how much diversity and struggle for survival is hidden in this small world of nature. I hope you enjoyed learning about this new insect.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	MIX
Cassidinae	(Cylindromyia)
Photographer	@mshbd
Location	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

Link to original community
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/367512896

Latitude	Longitude	Map Link
24.3363	89.1137	https://www.openstreetmap.org/?#map=12/24.3363/89.1137