Housefly
The housefly, scientifically known as Musca domestica, is a common insect found worldwide, often buzzing around human habitats such as homes, barns, and garbage. Recognized for its role as a pest, the housefly is also a vector for disease, carrying germs from decaying organic matter, including food waste and animal refuse, which it often utilizes for feeding and breeding. An adult housefly typically measures around 7 to 8 millimeters long and features a distinctive black head with brown markings, large compound eyes, and a slender, tube-like mouth for ingesting liquid food. The fly’s body is made up of a black, gray-striped thorax and a similarly marked abdomen.
Houseflies are scavengers with a diet that includes a wide variety of organic materials, primarily rotting flesh, fruits, and feces. They reproduce rapidly; a female can lay up to 500 eggs in a lifetime, which hatch into maggots and develop into adult flies in about a week. The housefly's lifespan averages around 30 days, with variations depending on climate. Despite being a nuisance and a health risk, houseflies are not considered a threatened species and play a role in many ecological systems.
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Housefly
Musca domestica is the scientific name for the common housefly. It is a worldwide pest which flits and buzzes noisily about people's homes, barnyards, and garbage. Wherever it goes it spreads germs as it sucks and mops up a wide variety of food.
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Muscidae
Genus: Musca
Species: Domestica
The housefly is a famous pest which buzzes constantly and noisily about the places people live and work. As well as being a pest, the housefly is also a carrier of germs and disease. Because it often feeds and reproduces on garbage and the waste from people and animals, its body and mouth pick up germs and disease-causing organisms from these sites. When it then lands on a person or on human foods and other objects, it leaves behind these same germs. Millions of people die each year from a disease called dysentery. Dysentery occurs especially in places with poor sanitation, but other people can also become ill from other diseases in clean situations.
The familiar housefly has a large, black head with brown markings and huge, round, compound eyes. Compound eyes have many lenses instead of only one, and they enable the fly to see very well. The long, tube-like mouthparts of the fly extend from the middle of its face. Behind its head is its black, gray-striped thorax, or mid-body section. The housefly's one pair of wings is attached to the thorax. The wings angle toward the fly's tail end and are shaped like the wings of a jet fighter plane. Next to the wings is a pair of wing-like sensory organs shaped like tiny clubs. These are called halteres and keep the fly balanced in the air as well as helping it stay on a straight course. The fly's six hairy legs also attach to the thorax. Behind the thorax is the black abdomen, or tail section of the body, which has markings similar to those on the head. The full-grown, adult housefly is around seven or eight millimeters (1/3 of an inch) long.
The mouthparts of the housefly form a long, slender tube with a mop at the tip. Saliva flows through the tube and helps digest the fly's food before it enters the fly's body. The saliva dissolves the food into liquid so the fly can then mop and suck it into its body. The housefly is a scavenger which feeds on almost any liquid or partly-liquid material. It eats any organic matter that it can easily digest. Organic matter includes all those things which contain the element carbon. Every living thing contains carbon. Most often the housefly's diet is rotting flesh, fruit, food, and the waste from people and animals.
The housefly lives alone except when it joins other flies at sources of food. These feeding sites are also where the housefly mates and lays its eggs. The mating season varies and depends on the climate where the housefly lives. During her lifetime, a female may lay up to 500 eggs in batches of 75 to 150 eggs each at a feeding site. The worm-like larvae, or young, hatch eight to 24 hours later and are called maggots. The maggots feed hungrily and grow quickly for two weeks and then become pupae in hard cocoons. The pupal stage is the stage of development just before they become adults and lasts two to six days. One week after hatching from their eggs, the young flies are full-grown adults. Their wings quickly unfold, and they can mate and lay eggs three days after emerging from their pupal cocoons. The entire life span of the housefly is around 30 days. Adults may die during the winter or hibernate. In warm climates they are active and mate throughout the year.
Beetles and other species of flies may prey upon the housefly. They are not a threatened species.
Bibliography
Bales, Rebecca. “Housefly Insect Facts - Musca Domestica.” A-Z Animals, 11 June 2023, a-z-animals.com/animals/housefly. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.
Doctor, Jonelle. “ADW: Musca Domestica: Information.” Animal Diversity Web, 2013, animaldiversity.org/accounts/Musca‗domestica. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.