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The ovipositor on this fly is unusual in that it is pointing forward and above the abdomen. What could be it's intended victim?
Malaise trap, Townsville Australia.

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Female Lonchaeidae. Lonchaeidae have long ovipositors as many species seem to specialise ovipositing under bark of dead or dying trees. You need a long ovipositor to reach as fas as you can to get to the wood.

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Thanks Paul, but I was more fascinated by the location of the ovipositor, on it's back. How does the fly position itself to lay eggs. It seems impossible to me.

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The current position is due to the drying of the specimen.

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Thank you again.
Cheers, Graeme

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Paul is correct, the ovipositor has curled up when the specimen dried. The long antennal flagellomere suggests it is a species within the genus Silba (if the arista has long hairs this would confirm it is a Silba) of which there are about 12 spp. in Australasia. As far as we know they lay eggs in decaying fruits rather than in dead wood .......... Iain

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OK. Most of lonchaeids are zoophagous under the bark, some are saprophagous and some are true phytophagous, and even gall-forming.

Unlike the true fruit flies (Tephritidae), they have the basal joint of the ovipositor (the oviscape, tergosternite 7) soft and flat, without straightening apodemes, etc., making it deformable by contracting muscles while drying.

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Thanks everyone.
Graeme