Country diary: The unenviable life of the noon fly

Wolsingham, Weardale: These beautiful and important insects spend their formative days in semi-liquid bovine excrementA month ago, we took a detour from this footpath, wide around a bull and his harem that were sheltering under the trees. The beasts have moved to pastures new, but they've left two legacies: lush tufts of new grass, fertilised by decaying cowpats, and scores of noon flies (Mesembrina meridiana). They are basking on fence posts in the afternoon sun on another unseasonably mild November day.For an insect that spends its formative stages in semi-liquid bovine excrement, the noon fly is surprisingly beautiful, with its body of polished jet and wings like rippled glass, decorated with bright orange patches. Interesting too, because each will lay just five eggs, one per cowpat, releasing carnivorous grubs that prey on the larvae of dung flies and other coprophagous insects. Its life cycle, an integral part of agricultural grassland ecology, revolves around defecating cattle. Continue reading...