---
title: "Black Soldier Fly"
description: "Hermetia illucens — Insects & spiders. Hermetia illucens, known colloquially as the black soldier fly, is a widespread fly of the family Stratiomyidae."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/black-soldier-fly
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Black Soldier Fly

> Hermetia illucens — Insects & spiders. Hermetia illucens, known colloquially as the black soldier fly, is a widespread fly of the family Stratiomyidae.

- Scientific name: *Hermetia illucens*
- Category: `insects` (Insects & spiders)
- Habitats: `urban` (Towns & gardens)
- iNaturalist observations: 41428
- Wikidata: [Q285029](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q285029)
- iNaturalist taxon: [82177](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/82177)

## Names

- en: Black Soldier Fly
- de: Schwarze Soldatenfliege
- es: Mosca soldado negra
- fr: Mouche soldat noire

## Countries with the most observations

US (14839), AU (2070), IN (1921), MX (1832), FR (1757), BR (1730), TW (1093), ES (902), IT (838), AR (687), ID (563), ZA (523)

## Summary

Hermetia illucens, known colloquially as the black soldier fly, is a widespread fly of the family Stratiomyidae. Black soldier fly larvae are commonly utilized in composting systems due to their ability to rapidly break down food waste. In recent years, H. illucens has increasingly been gaining attention because of its hyperaccumulation of protein and fats via consumption of renewable substrates.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens

## Photo

![Black Soldier Fly](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/black-soldier-fly/medium.jpg)

Photo: Federico Biguzzi · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/313715253

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/black-soldier-fly?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).