New Zealand blue blowfly

Māori name: rango pango, ngaro, rako: iroiro

English name: New Zealand blue blowfly

Scientific name: Calliphora quadrimaculata (Swederus)
order = Diptera; family = Calliphoridae

• occurs throught Aotearoa / New Zealand, but is most common on high mountains, and in the cooler parts of Te Waipounamu / South Island and on Rakiura / Stewart Island. Its range extends as far south as Campbell Island and the Auckland Islands;
• is our largest endemic blowfly;
• rarely comes indoors;
• females will readily "blow" woollen bedding, clothes, and meat;
• maggots have occasionally been found on fly-struck sheep, but they are secondary invaders rather than fly-strike initiators;
• maggots can develop on mountain top areas in the absence of carrion, apparently feeding on the decaying leaf bases of snow tussock.

See Dear, J.P. 1986: Calliphoridae (Insecta: Diptera). Fauna of New Zealand 8

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