Early morning on the little mangrove beach, flies gather on leaves to watch the sunrise. Maybe they spend the nights there. It's not a matter of warmth as the air is already 84 degrees F. About 30 minutes after sunrise, they fly away to forage nectar and scan the beaches for dead fish. This colorful fly is an exotic species that has been extending it's range into Florida, California and other warm weather states. It's two good qualities are that it is an excellent pollinator of mango trees (and, based upon my observations, several other plants) and it's useful in forensic entomology (think Gil Grissom on CSI). It has very uncomplimentary common names.
We had a visit from this species of fly for the first time last year 2018. It is in the garden again 2019.An introduced fly to control green vegetable bug - Pentatomidae - Nezara viridula See article: blog.une.edu.au/thesweepnet/2011/03/28/parasitism-in-gree...Photos: FrediNaturalist 6 Feb 2021: "This is very probably a T. pictipennis. Considering the terminalia drawn in Dugdale, this is the species introduced in the region (even though it was done with a different name). " This is very probably a T. pictipennis. Considering the terminalia drawn in Dugdale, this is the species introduced in the region (even though it was done with a different name). Rodrigo Dios
For the wing enthusiasts; the wing of the horse bot-fly, Gasterophilus intestinalis. The fly itself could easily be mistaken at a glance for a syrphid or bumble bee. This insect is not native to Australia and is an internal parasite of horses.