Adults are commonly 7–11 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Scathophaga inquinata
A predator that turns a fresh cowpat into a mating arena, nursery and battlefield within minutes of its arrival.
About this species
Orange-tailed Dung Fly
Scathophaga inquinata(Meigen, 1826)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Scathophaga inquinata is a European dung fly. Adults hunt other insects on vegetation and dung, while reproduction is concentrated around newly deposited cattle dung where males intercept arriving females.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Diptera · Scathophagidae · Scathophaga
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe and parts of temperate AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Europe and parts of temperate Asia
Pasture, marshy grassland and other habitats with grazing livestock.
Diurnal; adults rapidly colonise fresh dung.
Adults prey on small flies and other insects; larvae develop in dung and consume organic matter and small organisms.
Solitary, but temporarily dense around fresh dung.
What makes this species remarkable?
Males race to fresh dung and wait for females, so a cowpat only minutes old becomes an intensely contested mating station.
Females often mate immediately before pushing eggs into the dung, placing the next generation into a warm, microbe-rich habitat before the surface dries.
Unlike the harmless-looking “fly on dung” stereotype, adults are active predators that seize and suck the contents of other small insects.