Orange

Minettia inusta

I recently discovered a Facebook group for UK diptera (a fancy name for flies), which should help us to identify at least some of our more distinctive fly pictures – like this one, for instance. This is Minettia inusta, a small orange fly with distinctively patterned wings. It's said to be quite common in southern Britain, but ours is one of the very few records for Norfolk in the national database. My guess is that most people just aren't looking at little flies! Elsewhere in the world, it's widespread across the Palearctic (Europe, northern Africa, and Asia north of the Himalayan foothills). It's a saprophagous species, which means that it gets its nourishment from decaying organic matter, including carcasses. It's more common in grassland than other habitats, so I guess it's finding our pocket meadow to its liking. Other than that, I couldn't find any other information about the species. There's still a lot to learn about many species with which we share our planet.