Hermetia illucens Insect Soldier Fly Diptera Brachycera Stratiomyidae

Hermetia illucens mm 15-20 Insect Soldier Fly Diptera Brachycera Stratiomyidae.
Family: Stratiomyidae.
Common name: Black Soldier Fly.
Syn. Musca illucens, Musca leucopa, Hermetia rufiventris, Hermetia nigrifacies, Hermetia pellucens, Hermetia mucens, Hermetia illuscens.

Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758) is a Diptera of Stratiomyidae family; the specie has neotropical origin: in the American continent is known as black soldier fly, but currently has a cosmopolitan distribution.
In Italy it was reported for the first time in the middle of the last century. Currently it has spread throughout the peninsula and the major islands, and is supplanting as degrader sarco-scavenger indigenous Diptera with similar ecological niches. This its rapid spread is explained by its biological characteristics: H. illucens fact is a voracious predator and competitor of other Diptera and is also able to inhibit the growth of other species through allomones. This specie is also not attacked by parasitoids and is extremely resistant to chemicals and insecticides.
The larvae are found frequently in composting plants and waste disposal, within which play a useful role in reducing the mass and the pollution load of the waste; also play a significant role in forensic entomology.
The diet of the larvae is mainly scavenger. The larvae are found in decaying organic substrates, both plant and animal, in excrement, in moist soils and litter, in the bark of trees, etc. Like most of Stratiomyidae is an environmentally useful insect as intervenes in the carbon cycle in the early stages of the decomposition of organic matter. Their biology has been extensively studied for the practical implications, and are well known development time of six larval stages. The areas of application are different and some of these have, albeit in perspective, not negligible importance for the benefits that could be drawn from the economic point of view, environmental, energy. The extreme voracity and the rapid cycle of the larvae of H. illucens development can also be exploited for the disposal of organic waste with high environmental impact, such as slurry of intensive livestock farms, the agri-food industry wastes, waste municipal solid. In recent years, public and private research has devised means of disposal and recycling of waste water and solid waste based on biodigesters and composting plants using the stratiomide farms to reduce the volume of waste at relatively low cost.
In the energy sector, the larvae of H. illucens can be exploited for the production of alternative energy from biomass. The technology involves the use of the larvae as digesters of biomass coming from the food waste and the extraction of the lipid reserves from pupae for the production of biodiesel additive for oil.
Adults are glicifagi and frequenting flowers to feed on nectar. Unlike other dipterous scavengers, adults of Stratiomyidae have no relations with the larvae of the growth substrate, except for the step of oviposition.