Everyone knows the house fly or house fly. In the summer it is very annoying when these insects come in through an open door or window. However, they are very useful for nature. They not only serve as food for other animals, they also ensure that a lot of waste and dead animals disappear. This animal is only a small centimeter in size, but is still more than worth a closer look.
Three parts
A housefly consists of three main parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen.
The head
At the head of a fly, the two eyes immediately stand out. They have a reddish brown color and are composed because each eye consists of separate particles. The fly sees the environment in a kind of mosaic. Those particles are also called facets. Each eye has more than 3000! So a fly sees very well. This also explains why a fly usually sees you coming with the fly swatter. The eyes of the females are slightly smaller than those of the males.
In addition to the eyes, the flies also have a suction snout and two antennae. They need those two parts to eat. They use the feelers to look for food and that is then worked inwards with the suction snout.
The brisket
We call the middle part of the fly the chestpiece. Dark stripes run the length of this stretch. The brisket is also covered with delicate black hairs.
The wings are also attached to this part of the body. A fly has one pair of wings and they are veined. In the sun they also get a shiny color. Behind the wings there is a dumbbell (short rod) and with that the insects keep their balance.
The legs are also attached to the chestpiece. A fly has three pairs, making a total of six. The legs can be divided into three parts: the thigh, the shin and the five-part foot. At the end of the leg there are two claws each and those claws are provided with an adhesive pad. This pad produces a sticky substance. That is very important for the fly because it makes it possible to walk upside down on a ceiling.
Abdomen
The last part of the fly is the abdomen. This piece consists of a hard chitin armor. At the top that armor is checked black, at the bottom it is rather yellowish to white. That abdomen also has rings. In a male fly there are only five, in a female fly there are nine.
Reproduction
When the flies want to mate, the male crawls on the back of the female. She will stretch her abdomen so that the laying tube comes out. This tube inserts the female fly into the sex opening of the male fly. That mating only lasts a few seconds. In the summer, the female will lay between 100 and 150 eggs. She does this in manure, in dead animals … After one full day those eggs hatch legless white larvae. We call them maggots. After another day, those maggots are already a lot bigger and their skin becomes too small. Then a first shedding occurs. After a second molt, the maggots will pupate. Eventually the flies hatch from the pupae and a new fly generation is born. This cycle usually lasts a good week, but on hot days it can be faster than seven days.
In normal weather conditions, the flies disappear in October. They usually die from a fungus or from the cold. However, they can live longer if it turns out to be less cold in October, November and December. There is also a difference between summer and winter flies.
Eating ritual
A fly is not a picky insect, but still prefers sweet foods. They use the antennae to look for food. These feelers smell sweet things, as it were. They will ‘taste’ with the pads at the bottom of their legs. They will spit on solid food with saliva. Because this saliva consists of digestive juices, the food starts to digest and that way they can still eat the solid food with their suction snout.
ID card
- Official name is Musca domestica
- Belongs to the invertebrates, insects
- A pair of fleshy, unfolded and veined wings
- Live an average of one month
- Occurs all over the world
- They are diurnal animals (they orient themselves towards the light)
Facts
- The house fly is also called the house fly
- Fly larvae are used as bait by the fishermen
- Flies clean their feet because dust and dirt weigh a lot for them
- The fly is dependent on humans: if it is too cold or too dry somewhere, the flies cannot survive
- A fly’s wings can swing up and down up to 300 times per second
- The flight speed of a fly is less than 10 kilometers per hour
- Flies fertilize flowers by circulating pollen with their legs (pads!)
- Processing waste and dead animals (useful for nature!)