Unknown fly - fruit fly?

[CosbyArt]

I was curious if anyone can confirm this is a wild species of fruit fly or anything about it? The best I can figure is it appears to belong to the Drosophilidae family.

I'm curious as I found about 20 of these in a sealed jar that housed the American Carrion beetles (which I no longer have). I kept it in case any beetle eggs were laid and hatched. To my surprise feeding my mantids tonight I noticed the flies in the container.

The flies seem to range in size of about a Melanogaster to just short of Hydei - which I find strange as they all appear the same in color and markings.

I added the flies to a empty culture I had made for my Melanogaster flies to see what they will do. If they do turn out to be a safe variety of fruit fly I will feed them to my Ghost nymphs as one has recently molted and the Melanogaster flies are getting too small.

 

[Ranitomeya]

Those are not fruit flies. They may be phorid flies as some are attracted to source of protein such as rotting meat and dead insects.

Some species are also known to parasitize other invertebrates, slowly killing them as they feed until their host dies, feeding on the remaining contents of the body, and emerging to pupate. Others have also been known to lay eggs around eggs of other invertebrates that the larvae then feed on.

 

[CosbyArt]

Those are not fruit flies. They may be phorid flies as some are attracted to source of protein such as rotting meat and dead insects.

Some species are also known to parasitize other invertebrates, slowly killing them as they feed until their host dies, feeding on the remaining contents of the body, and emerging to pupate. Others have also been known to lay eggs around eggs of other invertebrates that the larvae then feed on.

It definitely looks like you are correct. It seems the species is Megaselia scalaris, as the photo is a exact match to mine. The various descriptions and traits I found about them also match the flies I have (such as zig zag running versus flying mainly and such).

The Phorid flies also explain how they got in a sealed container too, they were parasitic to one of the carrion beetles.

Thanks for the ID, and I will definitely not use them as feeders.