Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Tabanidae (Horse-fly, Breeze flies, Cleggs, Klegs, Clags, Deer flies, Gadflies, Zimbs, Bulldog flies, Stouts, March flies, Horse flies, Clegs, Horse and Deer Flies, Horseflies, Tabanids)
Genus: Scaptia (horse fly).
Species: Scaptia adrel
Scientific name: Scaptia adrel
Synonyms: Pangonia hirticeps, Pangonia adrel, Tabanus adrel
Common name: Bush gadfly, New Zealand Bush gadfly, rango
Scaptia adrel is a large native hoverfly that is a member of a large family of flies (Tabanidae) with over 4000 species described worldwide. New Zealand has about 20 flies of this species, all nectar eaters.
Scaptia adrel is usually a forest dweller inhabiting bush edges and bush clearings where it can often be seen hovering about 2 metres above the ground or resting on tree trunks.
Scaptia adrel has large, iridescent, reflective eyes and a prominent proboscis. There are two distinctive patches of white hairs on each side of its thorax just behind the wings and one white patch on the upper abdomen.
Scaptia adrel is an important pollinator of native plants and native trees.as the adults feed on nectar, especially from the flowers of Kunzea ericoides (Kanuka) and Leptospermum scoparium (Manuka).
Its larvae are carnivorous maggots that live in damp soil.
Scaptia adrel nectar feeding with its large proboscis.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
