Frontal portrait of the male Common Yellow Dung-fly (Scathophaga stercoraria), sometimes called the golden dung fly. The portrait has been made with magnification 9 and f/7.1, using a Canon 7D, a Canon MP-E 65 mm/f2.8 and a Canon 2x teleconverter.
The adults are mostly predators on smaller insects — mostly other Diptera, they will also feed on pollen, but most specimens seen on flowers will be hunting prey there. Both males and females are found on dung, the males only feeding on other insects that visit dung, such as blow-flies. Females will be there both to feed and oviposit on the dung surface,
Females prefer to lay their eggs on the small hills of the dung surface and avoid depressions and pointed parts of the dung. This ensures survival, as emergence is better by avoiding the drying on small points in the dung. Also by avoiding possible drowning by rain by not laying eggs in depressions of the dung surface. The female yellow dung-fly is capable of making these decisions about her egg placement, and thus increasing possibility of success of her future generations. The eggs hatch into predatory larvae and feed on insect larvae within the dung. After 21 days or more of feeding, dependent on conditions, the larvae burrow into the soil around and beneath the dung and then develop into pupae, before developing into adult flies (source: Wikipedia).
