{"id":10035,"date":"2026-06-16T09:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T09:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=10035"},"modified":"2026-08-25T18:51:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:51:32","slug":"2026-06-the-little-black-blowfly-of-the-baltic-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2026-06-the-little-black-blowfly-of-the-baltic-en\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny hunters and shaded wings: Meeting the little black blowfly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The little black blowfly (<em>Melanomya nana<\/em>) is one of the smallest blowflies (family: <em>Calliphoridae<\/em>) in the world, measuring just 3 to 4.5 millimeters long. Unlike their shiny, metallic bluebottle cousins, these tiny insects are entirely matte-black, slender, and covered in fine bristle-like hairs. Adults spend their days visiting open grasslands, dunes, and woodland edges to sip nectar from thistles and umbrella-shaped flowers. While most blowfly larvae eat decaying matter, these tiny flies have a far more specialized lifestyle: their grubs live as internal parasites, targeting land snails! I spotted this tiny, sun-loving fly at a campsite in Sweden during a summer road trip along the Baltic Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The little black blowfly (Melanomya nana) is one of the smallest blowflies (family: Calliphoridae) in the world, measuring just 3 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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