File:Yellow Dung Fly (43626025550).jpg

Found mainly around cow pats the yellow dung fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) is, perhaps, not one of natures most beautiful designs and their habits are not really what we humans like to think and talk about but they do an essential job in keeping our environment in balance. I cannot imagine how deep we would be in cow pats if it were not for the umpteen million dung flies that lay their eggs in them. Those larvae munch their way through the pat and then change into adults to fly off to another pat to set their young to work on the next one!

Out in force by the end of March these little yellowish brown flies are visible in adult form right through until October, possibly even later in the year if we avoid frosts. They are far less common now than they were a few years ago. Farmers now feed cows antibiotics as a normal part of their diet and this affects the fly larva's ability to survive in the cow pat.