Woodlands Historic Park Flies

Mating pair of Senecio Flower Gallers at Woodlands Historic Park
Senecio Flower Galler Fruit Flies, early Oct.

The larvae of this fly form galls in the flowers of daisies in the genus Senecio (Fire Weed), of which there are several species in the park. On the Galls page there is a photo of a flower gall on Cotton Fireweed. The flies in the photo above were seen on a Rough Fireweed.

Classification

from Australian Faunal Directory

Order Diptera - Flies, 8955 named species in Australia at Nov. 2021
Division Cyclorrhapha - Flies having Short Antennae with a Bristle or Arista
Family Tephritidae - Fruit Flies, 293 named species in Australia
Genus Sphenella
Species Sphenella ruficeps

Reference

DE Hardy and RA I Drew (1996) Revision of the Australian Tephritini (Diptera : Tephritidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 10(2) pages 213 - 405.