Golden dung flies, Scathophaga stercoraria, male guarding female while she lays eggs.

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Golden dung flies, Scathophaga stercoraria, mating/mate guarding. A female dung fly may mate with more than one male, and the last male to mate with her will fertilize the vast majority of her eggs, so a male will often guard the female (in a position that closely resembles mating) while she lays her eggs to prevent her from mating with other males.

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Size: 5184px × 3456px
Location: Massachusetts, United States,
Photo credit: © Custom Life Science Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: animal, animals, arthropod, arthropods, bug, bugs, close, close-, closeup, common, diptera, dipteran, dung, flies, fly, golden, guarding, haltere, insect, insects, islc, macro, mate, mating, reproduction, scathophaga, scathophagidae, scathophaginae, schizophora, stercoraria, yellow