Although the housefly is a very common pest, few actually touch on the subject. I decided to fill our viewers in and educate you about the nuisance pest that drives us nuts.
Adults flies are between 8-12 mm long, their thoraxis gray in color with four dark lines on the back and their whole body is covered with hair-like projections. The female fly is slightly larger than males, and have a much larger space between their between their compound eyes. The housefly has one pair of wings; the hind pair is reduced to small halteres that help with flight stability. There are a few species that are similar in looks to the housefly include:
▪ The lesser housefly, Fanniacanicularis, is some what smaller and more slender.
▪ The stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, has piercing mouth parts.
The Houseflies Life cycle
Females can lay up to 500 eggs in several batches of about 75 to 15. The eggs are white and area bout 1.2 mm in length. Within a day, larvae (maggots) hatch from the eggs; they live and feed on organic materials, such as garbage or feces.
They are pale-whitish, 3-9 mm long, thinner at the mouth end, and have nolegs. They live at least one week. At the end of their third instar,the maggots crawl to a dry cool place and transform into pupae, colored reddish or brown and about 8 mm long. The adult flies then emerge from the pupae. (This whole cycle is known as complete metamorphosis.)The adults live from two weeks to a month in the wild, or longer in benignlaboratory conditions. After having emerged from the pupae, the flies cease to grow; small flies are not young flies, but are indeed the result of getting insufficient food during the larval stage.
The Houseflies Diet
Houseflies feed on feces, sputum, and moist decaying organic matter such as old food, eggs and flesh. Houseflies can intake liquid foods. They spit out salivaon solid foods to predigest it, and then suck it back into its abdomen. They also regurgitate partly digested matter and eat it.
Is it a boy or a girl?
Sex is determined within one species. However, the housefly exhibits many different mechanisms for sex determination, such as male heterogamy (like most insects and mammals), female heterogamy (like birds) and maternal control over offspring sex.
Evolution
Even though the order of flies (Diptera) is much older, true houseflies are believed to have evolved in the beginning of the Cenozoic era, some 65million years ago. The Housefly feedson liquid or semi-liquid substances beside solid materials which has been softened by saliva or vomit. Because of their high intake of food, they deposit feces constantly, one of the factors that makes the insect a dangerous carrier of pathogens. Although they are domestic flies, usually confined to the human habitations, they can fly for several miles from the breeding place. They are active only in daytime and rest at night e.g. at the corners of rooms, ceiling hangings, etc.