THE HOUSE FLY AT MY BACKYARD
The house fly one of nature's mysterious creature that I can't really grasp my head around though when I think or see this creature truth to be told it disgust me but as time pass I wanted to know more about other organisms other than humans, how the interact, reproduce and so on. So I went on research about this creature so I could somehow understand some of it biology.
| Common name | house fly |
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| Kingdom | Animalia |
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| Phylum | Arthropoda |
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| Class | Insecta |
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| Order | Diptera |
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| Family | Muscidae |
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| Tribe | Muscini |
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| Genus | Musca |
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| Species | M. domestica |
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| Binomial name | Musca domesticaLinnaeus, 1758 |
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| M. d. calleva Walker, 1849 | M. d. domestica Linnaeus, 1758 |
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The housefly (Musca domestica) is a fly of the suborder Cyclorrhapha. It possibly originated in the Middle East, and spread around the world as a commensal of humans.
Adults are gray to black, with four dark, longitudinal lines on the thorax, slightly hairy bodies, and a single pair of membranous wings. They have red compound eyes, set farther apart in the slightly larger female.
The female housefly usually mates only once and stores the sperm for later use. It lays batches of about 100 eggs on decaying organic matter such as food waste, carrion, or feces. These soon hatch into legless white larvae, known as maggots. After two to five days of development, these metamorphose into reddish-brown pupae, about 8 millimetres (3⁄8 inch) long. Adult flies normally live for two to four weeks, but can hibernate during the winter.
The adults feed on a variety of liquid or semi-liquid substances, as well as solid materials which have been softened by their saliva. They can carry pathogens on their bodies and in their feces, contaminate food, and contribute to the transfer of food-borne illnesses, while, in numbers, they can be physically annoying. For these reasons, they are considered pests.
Houseflies, with short life cycles and ease with which they can be maintained, have been found useful for laboratory research into aging and sex determination.
Houseflies appear in literature from Ancient Greek myth and Aesop's "The Impertinent Insect" onwards.
Authors sometimes choose the housefly to speak of the brevity of life, as in William Blake's 1794 poem "The Fly", which deals with mortality subject to uncontrollable circumstances.
Each female housefly can lay up to 500 eggs in her lifetime, in several batches of about 75 to 150.
The eggs are white and are about 1.2 mm (1⁄16 in) in length, and they are deposited by the fly in a suitable place, usually dead and decaying organic matter, such as food waste, carrion, or feces. Within a day, larvae (maggots) hatch from the eggs; they live and feed where they were laid. They are pale-whitish, 3 to 9 mm (1⁄8 to 11⁄32 in) long, thinner at the mouth end, and legless.
Larval development takes from two weeks, under optimal conditions, to 30 days or more in cooler conditions. The larvae avoid light; the interiors of heaps of animal manure provide nutrient-rich sites and ideal growing conditions, warm, moist, and dark.
At the end of their third instar, the larvae crawl to a dry, cool place and transform into pupae. The pupal case is cylindrical with rounded ends, about 8 mm (5⁄16 in) long, and formed from the last shed larval skin.
It is yellowish at first, darkening through red and brown to nearly black as it ages. Pupae complete their development in two to six days at 35 °C (95 °F), but may take 20 days or more at 14 °C (57 °F).
When metamorphosis is complete, the adult housefly emerges from the pupa. To do this, it uses the ptilinum, an eversible pouch on its head, to tear open the end of the pupal case.
Having emerged from the pupa, it ceases to grow; a small fly is not necessarily a young fly, but is instead the result of getting insufficient food during the larval stage.
Male houseflies are sexually mature after 16 hours and females after 24. Females produce a pheromone, (Z)-9-tricosene (muscalure). This cuticular hydrocarbon is not released into the air and males sense it only on contact with females; it has found use in pest control, for luring males to fly traps.
The male initiates the mating by bumping into the female, in the air or on the ground, known as a "strike". He climbs on to her thorax, and if she is receptive, a courtship period follows, in which the female vibrates her wings and the male strokes her head.
The male then reverses onto her abdomen and the female pushes her ovipositor into his genital opening; copulation, with sperm transfer, lasts for several minutes. Females normally mate only once and then reject further advances from males, while males mate multiple times.
A volatile semiochemical that is deposited by females on their eggs attracts other gravid females and leads to clustered egg deposition.
The larvae depend on warmth and sufficient moisture to develop; generally, the warmer the temperature, the faster they grow. In general, fresh swine and chicken manures present the best conditions for the developing larvae, reducing the larval period and increasing the size of the pupae.
Cattle, goat, and horse manures produce fewer, smaller pupae, while mature swine manure composted with water content under 30%, approached 100% mortality of the larvae. Pupae can range from about 8–20 milligrams (0.12–0.31 gr) in weight under different conditions.
The life cycle can be completed in seven to ten days under optimal conditions, but may take up to two months in adverse circumstances. In temperate regions, 12 generations may occur per year, and in the tropics and subtropics, more than 20.
| Source | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housefly |
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PROXIMITY TO HUMANS:
Houseflies are often found in both urban and rural areas where humans and their waste products exist.
MOIST, DECAYING ORGANIC MATTER:
Their larvae require moist, decaying organic materials to develop, such as:
Garbage and Feces: A primary source for larval development.
Rotting Food: Fruits, vegetables, and other decaying food waste are ideal breeding sites.
Animal Waste: Manure and other organic wastes from livestock are common breeding grounds.
TEMPERATURE AND CLIMATE:
They prefer warm (around 30°C) and dry conditions but can survive in a variety of environments.
INDOOR AND OUTDOOR SURFACES:
Adult flies rest on low-lying surfaces during the day, including floors, tables, ceilings, and even wires and cords.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION:
Houseflies have a global presence, found worldwide except in Antarctica.
Walsh SB, Dolden TA, Moores GD, Kristensen M, Lewis T, Devonshire AL, Williamson MS (October 2001). "Identification and characterization of mutations in housefly (Musca domestica) acetylcholinesterase involved in insecticide resistance". The Biochemical Journal. 359 (Pt 1). Portland Press Ltd.: 175–181. doi:10.1042/bj3590175. PMC 1222133. PMID 11563981
West LS (1951). The Housefly. Its natural history, medical importance, and control (PDF). New York: Comstock Publishing Company.
Paterson HE (
| steem-atlas | [//]:# (!steematlas 5.001487 lat 7.947937 long Blissful electronics d3scr) |
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| Google coordinates | 5.001487,7.947937 |
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| Contact | 08060990733 |
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What do you know about this wonderful creature let's explore more @sampson01 @saviour-moses @us-andrew
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