Oplodontha rubrithorax

A few days ago, I was walking outside. Suddenly, I saw a very beautiful little insect sitting on a green grass leaf. At first glance, it seemed like an ordinary fly. But when I took a close-up macro photo of it with my mobile phone, I saw its true beauty. Its eyes are so beautiful, just like small dots or dots!

​After taking the photo, I searched for its name on the Internet and the iNaturalist app. At first, I was a little confused, thinking it might be a 'Hover Fly'. But later, after comparing the information on Google, I was able to find out its exact name. Let's find out some surprising facts about this beautiful insect:

​Real name and identity: The scientific name of this insect is Oplodontha rubrithorax. It is actually an insect of the Soldier fly or Stratiomyidae family. In 1838, a French scientist named Justin Pierre Marie Macquart first introduced the identity of this insect.

​Size and appearance: They are very small in size. They are only 4 to 6 millimeters long. Their abdomen is light green or yellow in color and has a long dark black spot in the middle. Their upper body is black in color. However, I like the dot design of their eyes the most.

Where to see: These insects are mainly seen in our Asian continent. They are especially found in our Bengal region (Bangladesh and India) and countries like Thailand.

Nature and food: Large insects usually prefer to rest on the green leaves of trees. They eat honey or nectar from local flowers.
​ Benefits and harms: The best part of these insects is that they do a lot of good to our nature. Large insects visit flowers and eat honey, which helps a lot in pollination of plants. And their children keep the environment clean by eating rotten leaves and dirt. Honestly, they have no harm. They do not bite, sting or harm crops. They are very peaceful insects.

​Most surprising fact: While reading about them on the internet, I came across a very strange fact. Their babies or larvae can survive in extremely harsh environments. Their babies can even survive and grow in the boiling hot water of the hot spring in Chiang Mai, Thailand! Scientists were very surprised to see this.

How did you like the pictures of these spotted-eyed insects that I took today? Please let me know in the comment box.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)

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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	MIX
Cassidinae	(Oplodontha rubrithorax)
Photographer	Hive account@mshbd
Location	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh