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Hi
Is it a Sarcophaga carnaria? It was on a brick structure in Dar es Salaam. About 15mm long.

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It would be impossible to say for sure which species it was if it was a Sarcophaga because we'd usually need to see the male genitalia. However, this doesn't look like Sarcophaga to me if the genitalia on this really are red.

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The genitalia were red, sticking out like plums. See attached picture for the colour.

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S.carnaria has black genitalia, so it's not that species. It looks as though it might be in the subgenus Bercaea (very similar to Sarcophaga (Bercaea) africa, but the antennae are a different colour) - see http://www.dipter...to_id=2592

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Sarcophaga sp male I think. But not Sarcophaga (Sarcophaga) carnaria. Sarcophaga (Sarcophaga) sp to my knowledge never have red genitalia. Check if Sarcophaga (Bercaea) africa is shown in the gallery, maybe it will be similar to this.

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Tony, you are saying the fly is in the genus Sarcophaga and sub genus Bercaea?

Xespok I didn;t quite get you. Can you please repeat:)

Thanks to everyone for helping :D

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Yes, that's right. I don't know what other species might be in your area, but I'm fairly certain that this is in Sarcophaga s.g. Bercaea

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Thanks.

The image below was the best I got of its genitalia

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You have to turn it out. When the fly is soft open the genitalia out with a needle.

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I have to kill the fly?:(

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Yes ... that's one of the main reasons why people collect and kill insects - to examine parts that are not visible on photos :)

The problem with a lot of sarcophagids (and many other Diptera) is that externally different species look identical. However, the internal parts of the male genitalia are very characteristic. What you see in the photo is the genital capsule - the hard parts that protect his "important" bits inside and it's those internal parts we need to see to be sure of an identification :)

It doesn't mean you *have* to kill flies to study them. But it does mean that if you don't then you have to accept that you will have a lot of photos where you can only be sure of the genus or tribe ... or "it might be species X or species Y" etc. But if your curiosity grows and you have a project where you need to know (ie. if you are making a species list for a nature reserve etc.) then making a collection isn't difficult and will open up a huge and fascinating world of Diptera taxonomy and genuinely scientific research. :)

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Thanks for the info.
I think I am not ready yet, but maybe as you mention, sometime in the furture. :)

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I cannot agree with S.(Bercaea). I would rather think of Sarcophaga (Engelisca) nodosa, which I found locally very numerous, although I did not catch them at the wall of the presidential palace. This one has strong marginal bristles on the red genital segment, as nodosa. S.(E.) nodosa shows also reddisch antennae as Tony correctly states.. Jan H.C.Velterop, Enschede.