Meat fly: description, larvae, life span

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Flies belong to the order Diptera, of which there are more than one hundred and fifty thousand species in the world. And only a few of them are carriers of infection, while most are quite harmless, like butterflies. So what kind of flies should be wary of? And why are some of them so partial to carrion? Why do some people prefer flowers and fruits?

Meat Flies

This family includes more than two thousand species. They are found mainly in the northern hemisphere, in temperate zones. In hot climates, there are not so many of them.

Blowflies are mostly gray in 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 organic matter. There are blowflies that lay their eggs in other insects, in injured animals, and even in humans.

There are viviparous blowflies that lay their larvae in a decaying corpse.

Room fly

Some mistakenly takean ordinary 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 feeds only on liquid food, and it must first dissolve the solid food in saliva.

This fly prefers to lay its eggs in damp, decaying environments such as manure. One female can lay up to 120 eggs at a time, fortunately, not all offspring are hatched.

Meat fly

The most common blowflies we have are gray, green and carrion. These are rather large individuals, much larger than ordinary indoor ones, capable of delivering a lot of additional trouble to a person.

Grey blowfly

This fly is also called a sarcophagus. She is a carrion. This is a large fly, its length reaches 25 millimeters. Gray blowflies are, 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. Red eyes, white longitudinal lines on the belly. The body shape is oblong, the abdomen is covered with large bristles, hairy legs.

Grey blowflies are rare guests in a human dwelling and appear there only if they have something to profit from there. The sense of smell of these flies is very developed, and they are able to smell the smell of rotting meat at a very long distance. And they just need to touch the surface of the meat, so that many small worms immediately stir on it.

Female gray blowflies are viviparous andlarvae lay mainly in carrion. But there are representatives of this family, the larva of which is able to develop in rotting fruit, feces, or in other decaying organic matter. There are also species of fly whose larvae are capable of parasitizing other living organisms.

The larva of this fly is characterized by extraintestinal digestion. Sometimes she is able to feed on the larvae of other insects or practice cannibalism. The blowfly larva 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 blowfly pupa can hibernate, for example, the pupae of some types of sarcophagus can "sleep" all winter and turn into an adult only in late spring.

The blowfly feeds on the nectar of flowers, and at the same time pollinates them, carrying pollen on its shaggy legs.

The attitude towards gray blowflies, as, indeed, to other carrion species, cannot be unambiguous. Being carriers of infectious diseases, they also serve as a kind of orderlies in nature. Also, forensic criminologists are able to determine the time of death by the age of the larvae in a decaying corpse.

Green blowfly

This is a beautiful fly of a glossy emerald color with smoky wings that have a slight openwork pattern. The length of the green fly usually does not exceed 8 mm. Has large reddish eyes, a rounded belly and white cheeks.

Habitatgreen blowflies are places of all kinds of sewage, decaying animal corpses, manure, waste, but sometimes they are also found in flowering plants with a strong aroma. Food consists of rotting organic matter, where she lays her eggs.

One female is capable of laying about 180 eggs of a grayish or light yellow hue, which she tends to hide in carrion as deep as possible. The larvae are born after 6-48 hours and continue to develop there for another 9 days. After that, they move into the soil to turn into a chrysalis. Depending on weather conditions, an adult fly takes 10-17 days to form.

Fly Larvae - Application

White maggots, so popular among anglers, are blowfly larvae. Some anglers bring them out on their own by laying out pieces of rotting meat. But many still prefer to buy them in the store, as such "farming" has a rather specific smell, which usually keeps people from such agricultural production.

Classification of larvae

There are several types of maggots:

• Maggoth are the larvae laid by the blue carrion fly. They develop in rotting meat or in fish, and a few minutes are enough for a fly to fly to the smell. These maggots reach a length of 15 mm.
• Gozzer is the larva of meaty black-headed blue flies. Reaches sizes up to 20 mm and very quickly passes into the pupal stage.
• Gordini - gray larvaeblowflies, grow up to 25 mm, pupate very quickly.
• Pinka is the larva of the green blowfly. Small maggots, sizes do not exceed 10 mm.
• Fifa is a fly larva of the Lucilia species. Frost-resistant maggots no longer than 12 mm.

Lifespan

Reading all the above facts about flies, a completely natural question arises: “How long does a common fly live?”. Usually about a month, and in her entire life she is able to lay more than 500 eggs. Some types of flies lay up to 2 thousand eggs. If each larva survived to an adult, then already in the third generation the flies would have filled the whole world. Fortunately, a relatively small percentage survive, which meanwhile is capable of delivering significant trouble to everyone around.

Fighting Uninvited Guests

A big fly buzzing under the ear is capable of delivering not only a comparative inconvenience, but is also a carrier of a dangerous disease. They can infect both food and infect directly into the blood of a person. Tuberculosis, typhoid fever, cholera are a few of the diseases that flies can infect humans with.

The main principle of dealing with them is to maintain cleanliness. After all, as already mentioned, flies perfectly smell the food and fly to it. Empty the trash can regularly, clean up after pets, leave food uncovered, and fit windows with safety screens – these are simple ways that can make a person's life much easier.

After all,despite how long the common fly lives, it is capable of causing us many problems even in its short life span. Even though she's not a carrier of the disease, she can be very annoying, as she doesn't have the discernment to know she's not welcome here and look for a quieter place. No matter how many times you chase her away, she will come back again and again.

In addition, flying around the room, she marks everything with her secretions. Scientists have calculated that one fly is able to “check in” at least fifty different places per day. And each of them is a real breeding ground for microbes. So in the fight against flies, the rule that "cleanliness is the key to he alth" works more than ever.

By the way, not only the blowfly, but also the small midge, annoying in the open air, can also be the causative agent of serious diseases. It causes various conjunctivitis and is the cause of many intestinal diseases.