Flies belong to the order of dipterans, which in the world there are more than one hundred and fifty thousand species. And only a few of them are carriers of infection, most of them are quite harmless, like butterflies. So which flies should be wary of? And why are some of them so indifferent to the fall? And why do some prefer flowers and fruits?
Meat family flies
This family includes more than two thousand species. They are found mainly in the northern hemisphere, in areas with a temperate climate. In a hot climate there are not so many of them.
Mostly the meat fly has a gray color, but other colors are also found. Some species are quite large, their length can reach more than two centimeters, but there are also small ones - no more than six millimeters. The larvae of these flies usually develop on rotting meat or other organics. There are meat flies that lay eggs in other insects, in wounded animals, and even in humans.
There are viviparous meat flies that lay larvae in a decaying corpse.
Housefly
Some people mistakenly take a regular housefly for a meat fly, but this is not true. The housefly is much smaller, and it is not able to bite through the skin, it eats only liquid food, and the solid one must first be dissolved in saliva.
Such a fly prefers to lay eggs in a moist rotting environment, for example, in manure. One female can lay up to 120 eggs at a time, fortunately, not all are born.
Meat fly
The most common meat fly we have is gray, green and carrion. These are quite large individuals, much larger than ordinary indoor ones, capable of delivering a lot of additional trouble to a person.
Gray meat fly
This fly is also called a sarcophagus. She is carrion. This is a big fly, its length reaches 25 millimeters. Gray meat flies have, as the name implies, a gray color with a darker pattern in the form of checkers or lines, with a yellowish-white head, "divided" by a black stripe. The eyes are red, on the stomach are white longitudinal lines. The body shape is oblong, the abdomen is covered with large bristles, hairy legs.
Gray meat flies are rare guests in a person’s home and appear there only if they have something to profit from. The sense of smell of these flies is very developed, and they are able to smell the rotting meat at a very large distance. Moreover, they just need to touch the surface of the meat so that many small worms immediately move on it.
Females of gray meat flies are viviparous and lay larvae mainly in carrion. But there are representatives of this family, the larva of which is capable of developing in a rotting fruit, feces or in other decaying organics. There are also species of flies whose larvae are capable of parasitizing on other living organisms.
Extra-intestinal digestion is characteristic of the larva of this fly. Sometimes she is able to feed on the larvae of other insects or practice cannibalism. The larva of a meat fly lives on carrion for up to 10 days, after which it moves into the soil, where it turns into a chrysalis and then into an adult fly.
A meat-fly pupa can hibernate, for example, pupae of some sarcophagus species can “oversleep” all winter and become an adult only in late spring.
The meat fly eats nectar of flowers, and at the same time pollinates them, transferring pollen on its shaggy legs.
Attitude to gray meat flies, as well as to other carrion species, cannot be unambiguous. Being carriers of infectious diseases, they at the same time serve as original orderlies in nature. And forensic investigators by age larvae in a decaying corpse are able to set the time of death.
Green meat fly
This is a beautiful fly of a glossy emerald color with smoky wings having a slightly expressed openwork pattern. The length of the green fly usually does not exceed 8 mm. It has large reddish eyes, a rounded abdomen and white cheeks.
The habitat of green meat flies is places of all kinds of sewage, decaying animal corpses, manure, waste, but sometimes they are found in flowering plants with a strong aroma. Food consists of rotting organics, where it lays its eggs.
One female is able to lay about 180 eggs of a grayish or light yellow hue, which she seeks to hide in the carrion as deep as possible. Larvae are born in 6-48 hours and continue to develop there for 9 days. After that, they move into the soil to turn into a chrysalis. Depending on weather conditions, an adult fly forms within 10-17 days.
Larvae of flies - application
White maggots, so popular among anglers, are just the larvae of meat flies. Some fishing enthusiasts take them out on their own, laying out pieces of rotting meat. But many still prefer to buy them at the store, as such “farming” has a rather specific smell, which usually keeps people from such agricultural production.
Larva classification
There are several types of maggots:
- Maggot are the larvae that the blue carrion fly lays. They develop in rotting meat or in fish, and a few minutes are enough for the fly to fly into the smell. These maggots reach a length of 15 mm.
- Gozzzer is the larva of black-headed meat flies. Reaches sizes up to 20 mm and very quickly goes into the pupal stage.
- Gordini - larvae of gray meat flies, grow up to 25 mm, pupate very quickly.
- Pinka is the larva of a green meat fly. Small maggots, the size does not exceed 10 mm.
- Fifa is a larva of a fly of the Lucilia species. Frost-resistant maggots no more than 12 mm long.
Life span
Reading all the above facts about flies, a completely logical question arises: "How long does an ordinary fly live?" Usually about a month, and in all its life capable of laying more than 500 eggs. Some species of flies lay up to 2 thousand eggs. If every larva survived to an adult, then in the third generation flies would fill the whole world. Fortunately, a relatively small percentage survives, which, meanwhile, is capable of delivering considerable trouble to everyone around.
