---

A lot of green/bronze metallic flies began courting and mating in the last week in my area as spring tried to arrive...

Photos taken 13th/14th March 2009 in Wiltshire, southwest UK.

Can anyone tell me if they are a Lucilia sp. possibly L.sericata?

They vary in size and colour a fair bit and in the mating shot the male is more bronze coloured than the greener female, but in other shots the males are as green as the mated female.

They seem smaller to me than some Lucilia I photographed later in the year last year. Is there a typically early emerging, smallish Lucilia species that I'm seeing, or is this something else altogether?

NickU - generalist naturalist and photographer