The fly (Musca) got its name from the ancient Slavic word “mus”, meaning “gray”. Diptera insects belong to the phylum Arthropoda, class Insectae, order Diptera.
Fly - description and characteristics
The body length of a fly can be from a few millimeters to 2 cm. The insect has a pair of membranous wings, a rather large head, endowed with an oral organ - a proboscis, designed for sucking up liquid food. The fly's body consists of three parts: head, abdomen and chest, ending with three pairs of legs. Each leg of a fly is divided into five segments. One part is the foot, with two sharp claws and sticky pads. This feature allows the fly to quickly move along the ceiling and any vertical surfaces.
The eyes of a fly are a unique organ. Thanks to several thousand hexagonal facets, the fly has a circular field of vision, so its huge eyes can easily simultaneously see everything that happens to the side and even behind. The organ of smell is the antennae, which can recognize odors at great distances.
Types of flies, names and photographs
There are 3,650 species of flies in the world, some of which are particularly common:
- indoor(house) fly
insect gray, native to the Asian steppes. Distributed everywhere, most often near human habitation. Externally, many species are similar to the house fly, but it is distinguished by a special break at the edge of the wings. Under favorable conditions, the insect can live up to 2 months;
- hoverfly (syrphid)
looks and habits similar to . The insect is distinguished by a black and yellow striped body and transparent wings. The hoverfly feeds on the nectar of flowering plants and is absolutely harmless. The fly got its name from the murmuring sound made by its wings when hovering;
- green(carrion) fly
An insect with a shiny emerald body that lives near sewage and carrion. To avoid being eaten after mating, the male fly first offers the female some food;
- common milkweed (tenacious) or bee-shaped milkweed
considered a subspecies of hover flies. A large insect, up to 1.5 cm long, with a dark-colored body covered with hairy pubescence. Beeworm larvae that enter the human body can cause serious intestinal disorders;
- ktyr
a large predatory fly that poses a danger to midges, as well as similar flies. Killing with a sharp sting and poison of various dangerous insects, Ktyri flies bring significant benefits to humanity;
- Tsetse fly
inhabitant of the African continent. The main power source for this dangerous predator– the blood of wild mammals, as well as livestock and people. Tsetse flies are carriers of trypanosomes, which cause an incurable disease that destroys the immune system, nervous system and leading to death.
Tsetse fly. Alan R Walker, CC BY-SA 3.0
Where do flies live?
Flies live on all continents except Antarctica, near animal burrows and human habitation. This heat-loving insect cannot tolerate sub-zero temperatures: already at +8, the laid eggs of flies die.
What do flies eat?
Flies are omnivorous insects and can feed on any organic food. The flies pre-soak solid food with saliva. Sweet liquids and foods are especially preferred. Some types of flies are true “gourmets” and eat exclusively onion or . Pyophyllides (cheese flies) reproduce only inside the head of cheese.
Reproduction of flies
With the exception of some viviparous species, most flies lay eggs. Males attract females with a low buzzing sound. 2-3 days after mating, the female fly is ready to lay eggs in any food or organic waste.
One clutch contains approximately 150 eggs. During its existence, a female fly is capable of laying up to 3 thousand eggs. After a day, fly larvae and maggots appear.
This stage of development lasts about a week, during which time the larva increases in size up to 800 times.
The larval stage progresses to pupation and continues for another week. An adult fly, which does not change its size throughout its life, is born 12-14 days after laying eggs.
For the first 2-3 days, until the wings become stronger, the insect can only crawl. Average duration The life of a fly is 3 weeks.
What kind of flies are there - nasty and annoying. From the beginning of spring until late autumn There is no life from flies. In the spring, as soon as the sun warms up, these creatures crawl out from nowhere and bask under the first hot rays. At this time, flies are lazy, few in number, they are reluctant to fly, and only for short distances. But as a few days pass, the flies become more numerous.
This is where the torment begins. These impudent, annoying insects penetrate everywhere. If you left a piece of meat or bread open for five minutes, you can be sure that flies are sitting on it. Once you open a pan of compote, quickly grab a spoon to save floating flies, and if you get lost and fall asleep on the street, a fly will calmly sit on your face, or maybe crawl into your open mouth.
The closer to autumn, the more impudent the flies become: they begin to bite. There is no life for them at all. Why is this happening? Maybe the flies are being attacked by some kind of disease? Or maybe something changes in the structure of their mouth? Why don’t flies bite in the summer, but start stinging in the fall?
There is no need to blame a housefly for something it cannot do if it wants to. There are many sins associated with the house fly, but it cannot sting. Other species bite.
What kind of flies are there on the territory of Russia? There are over twenty thousand species of flies, many of which are so similar to each other that only an experienced specialist can distinguish them.
At the end of summer and autumn, the autumn zhigalka stings, the female of which must drink blood in order to continue her race.
Housefly
In addition to the housefly and the buzzer, which are the types of flies in human homes, you can often find other representatives of the fly family. Thus, the small housefly, or fania, differs from the ordinary one in size: it is half the size. The following flies are larger: calliphora, or meat, sarcophaga, or carrion, and market.
The blowfly is large with a blue, blue or green metallic tint: it can often be found near cesspools and garbage dumps; it flies into the house at the smell of meat. Gray carrion fly; her specialty is animal corpses and rotting garbage. These two flies often hit the windows with a loud buzzing sound, trying to fly out into the street.
Wolffly fly
In the southern regions of our country, in bazaars and markets, a frequent guest, if not host, is the market fly, somewhat larger than our house fly. The most dangerous fly for humans is probably the Wohlfarth fly.
It differs from other flies in that it lays not eggs, but packs of live larvae, and tries to lay them in various wounds, as well as in the eyes and ears of a wide variety of vertebrates. During the three to four days that the larvae spend in the animal’s body, they manage to thoroughly eat away living tissue.
Let's watch the video - how to drive out a fly
Understanding what flies eat is one way to prevent them. Thanks to proper storage, food disposal, and cleaning areas where food is consumed or prepared can greatly reduce the likelihood of these pesky insects.
Flies are an important group of insects x and have a significant impact on environment. Some species, such as leafminers, fruit flies Tephritidae and Drosophilidae, and gall midges (Cecidomyiidae) are pests of agricultural crops; others such as the tsetse fly, the blowfly and the botfly attack livestock, transmitting diseases that create significant economic losses.
Some species, such as drain flies (Psychodidae), affect human health by participating as vectors of major tropical diseases: midges cause river blindness, sand flies cause leishmaniasis. These insects are a nuisance to humans, especially when present in large quantities; they contaminate food and spread foodborne illnesses.
Who are flies and what do they eat?
Flies are insects from the order Diptera(diptera). The name of the order comes from the Greek δι- di two and πτερόν pterion wings. Insects of this order use only one pair of wings to fly, and the hind wings have been transformed into organs that act as high-speed sensors rotational movement and allow two-winged flies to perform complex aerobatic maneuvers.
Flies have a movable head with a pair of large compound eyes and mouthparts that perform piercing, cutting, licking and sucking functions. Their wings give them great maneuverability in flight, and their claws and foot pads allow them to cling to smooth surfaces. These insects undergo complete metamorphosis; the eggs are laid on a larval food source, and the larvae, which lack limbs, develop in a protected environment, often in their food source. A pupa is a hard capsule from which an adult emerges.
These insects are capable of laying eggs within any decaying biological material. The rate at which larvae reach the individual adult state, in turn becoming capable of reproducing individuals, is approximately ten days.
Habitat
These insects are found on almost all continents except Antarctica. More than 150,000 species have been officially described, but the actual species diversity is much greater.
Flies have a significant ecological significance. They are important pollinators, as they were among the first pollinators responsible for the early pollination of plants. These insects are the second largest group of pollinators after Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, etc.). In humid and cold regions of the Earth, they, as pollinators, are much more important than bees, since compared to bees, they need less food, since they do not need to feed their larvae.
But these insects also cause harm, especially in some parts of the world where they are found in large quantities. Large species such as tsetse flies cause significant economic losses to cattle.
The food spectrum of these insects is very wide. and varies from species to species. Their diet includes nectar and rotting corpses, fruits and feces, fresh blood and dried bread.
Like other insects, they have chemoreceptors that detect smell and taste, and receptors that respond to touch. The third segment of the antennae and maxillary corpuscles bear the main olfactory receptors, and taste buds are found in the lips, pharynx, legs, wings and female genital organs, allowing flies to taste their food by walking on it. Taste receptors in females at the tip of the abdomen receive information about the suitability of the site for ovipositor.
Blood-feeding flies have special sensory structures that can detect infrared radiation, and use them on the body of their owners. Many blood-sucking species can detect increased concentration carbon dioxide, which occurs near large animals. Species that feed on the blood of vertebrates can transmit some diseases.
What do larvae eat?
What do species that live near humans eat?
Flies are most active when it is warm. They are attracted to human habitation because of the warmth and smells emanating from there.
Adults feed and lay their eggs on organic degradable material which includes: fruits, vegetables, meat, animals, plant excretions and human feces. Both males and females also feed on nectar from flowers.
House flies
These insects eat all human food and human feces. They only feed on liquids, so they are able to convert solid foods into liquid using enzymes in their saliva. They are attracted various substances, such as:
- overripe fruits and vegetables;
- human and animal feces;
- sweet substances.
Domesticated species are generally limited to human habitats, but these insects can fly several kilometers from where they were born. They are active only during the daytime.
Fruit flies
Fruit flies, or fruit flies as they are also called, are attracted to fermented foods and liquids, which is why they are so common in homes and businesses. Food Industry. Fruit flies look for foods such as:
- liquids: beer, wine, cider, vinegar;
- fruits such as: fruits, vegetables;
- sweet products.
Small fruit flies can be carriers of various diseases.
Carrion flies
This name includes several species and representatives of which are quite large insects with a metallic blue, green, bronze or black sheen. They are usually the first insects to appear after the animal dies. These flies prefer fresh or rotten meat, animal corpses and feces.
Who eats flies
These insects are food for other animals at all stages of their development. The eggs and larvae are eaten by other insects, and some vertebrates specialize in feeding on flies. This:
Most of them consume flies as part of a mixed diet.
The tsetse fly belongs to the order of dipterous insects. International name: Glossina. It has 3 subspecies, distributed in subtropical and tropical regions of the African continent, and in total this moment Science knows 23 species of this insect. The tsetse fly is a carrier of trypanosomiasis, a so-called sleeping sickness that affects domestic animals and humans.
Types of insect and its description
Scientists have divided all types of this African fly into 3 subspecies, based on the insect’s habitat:
- Lives in savannah areas. Its scientific name is Morsitans.
- Lives in subtropical and tropical forests Africa, called Fusca.
- Found on the coast, it belongs to the subspecies Palpalis.
All these subspecies, unlike European analogues(e.g. house flies) are easily identified by the way their wings fold. African insects manage to fold them tightly, they overlap each other. They also have a piercing proboscis on the front of their head, which is clearly visible up close.
The body length ranges from 9 to 14 mm, the chest is colored in red and gray tones, where there are 4 longitudinal stripes, colored dark brown. The abdomen of each specimen is gray on the underside and yellow on top.
The tsetse fly has an oblong shaped proboscis. It is attached to the bottom of the head and points forward. At the end of the proboscis are sharp teeth, with which the insect drills into the skin of the victim. Substances that stop clotting enter the blood through the proboscis.
IN calm state the fly puts one wing on top of the other. In the middle segment of the wing, an ornament in the form of an ax is clearly visible (it is sometimes called a butcher's knife). The insect has antennae with hairs that can branch. The eyes are convex, consisting of tiny segments. The head is flattened, and the abdomen of the female is slightly larger in volume than that of the male.
Insect nutrition and habitat
The tsetse fly feeds on the blood of small wild mammals. She flies up to the victim, finds a vessel lying close to the surface of the skin, and drills skin covering proboscis. When the insect reaches the blood, its abdomen begins to swell noticeably. Animals usually don’t hear the fly flying, so they don’t worry. Tsetse attacks any object that emits heat. For example, if a person gets out of a car and the engine is not turned off, then she will attack the car. The tsetse has a peculiarity - it does not see the zebra. She does not perceive the alternation of black and white stripes, therefore this artiodactyl is the only animal that she does not hunt.
Tsetse lives in damp areas, prefers to live in humid subtropical and tropical forests. The savannah type actively reproduces on river banks, along fertile strips of land. 
Because of tsetse attacks, people are often forced to leave good, fertile areas.
Today, in Africa, the area of wooded savannas is expanding, so these tsetse species have multiplied greatly. They attack livestock, making it impossible to raise cows, horses and pigs in some areas.
A fly can feed on the blood of birds, small rodents, and lizards; it is for this reason that all attempts to reduce the number of insects by killing wild animals have ended in failure. In flies, unlike mosquitoes, when only the female bites the victim, both male and female individuals are engaged in the “bloody” business. This insect flies almost silently, very quickly, and can maneuver in all planes - it is very difficult to catch a tsetse.
Reproduction
Tsetse is a viviparous species - after birth, the larvae are immediately ready to become pupae. The female of this species mates with the male only once in her life, and then lays larvae every 10-15 days. Gestation younger generation lasts from 7 to 15 days. 
At a time, the female lays only 1 larva in the ground, which immediately buries itself and turns into a pupa. Brown. After 30 days, a sexually mature individual flies out of this place. During this period, the female flies to a shady place. Throughout her life, a female can lay from 8 to 10-12 larvae.
The danger of this type of insect for people
Symptoms of the disease:
- fever;
- headache;
- disruption of the sleep-wake cycle.
There have been attempts to create a cure for this disease, but sleeping sickness has not yet been completely defeated. The drugs turned out to be so toxic that they caused many side effects.
If a person notices a tsetse, he must kill it immediately. Simply hitting or trying to shake it off does not help - a fly, even with broken wings, strives to achieve the desired goal and can still bite.
Africans prefer to flatten the fly's abdomen with their fingers - this is a guarantee that it is killed.
To reduce the number of tsetse, scientists used biological method— they started raising a lot of flies in captivity, separated the males, and then sterilized them. The treated insects were then released into the wild. Such males mated with females, but the larvae did not appear. This has reduced the spread of the disease in Tanzania and some other countries.
It is worth remembering that tsetse is not always harmful. The presence of a large number of them saved African continent from soil erosion and destruction of grass cover by livestock. Thanks to these flies, vast areas have been preserved on the continent where wild animals live in relative safety.
The fly is a two-winged nuisance insect from a species of arthropod.
It received this name back from ancient Slavic times from the word “mus”, which translates as “gray”.
What does a fly look like?
Everyone probably knows what this insect looks like, but it’s still worth looking at the presented photos of various flies.
The length of its body ranges from a millimeter level to two cm. The hairy body of the fly has two wings with membranes, a fairly voluminous head and a belly with three pairs of legs.
The mouth is designed like a proboscis that sucks liquid food. The fly's legs have fairly developed sharp segments and sticky pads that allow it to stay upside down on any surface.
The insect's eyes are designed in a particularly unique way; they contain thousands of hexagonal crystals, which allows the fly to simultaneously see what is happening from absolutely any side (even the background), that is, it has a circular field of vision. Whiskers are capable of detecting and recognizing many different scents.
Habitats and food of flies
The fly insect is a very heat-loving arthropod and does not tolerate drops in temperature at all. Its habitat is almost the entire Earth, excluding cold Antarctica.
They give preference to residential areas, closer to people and animals. The fly can be observed in homes during the warm season, where it invades from early spring to late autumn.
The life of an insect is quite short - a maximum of 2.5 months.
Flies eat almost any organic food that is pre-soaked with their saliva. Sweets occupy the first place in its diet, but there are also exceptional individuals who choose raw vegetables.
Common subspecies of flies
At first glance, it seems that the flies are all the same - the same as we are used to chasing them around the house. But their population has exceeded 3,600 species!
Here are the most common types of flies:
Housefly or housefly
It is the most common insect living near people. This specimen is not blood-sucking and practically does not bite, which still does not make it safe.
The body is painted dark gray; on the belly there are limbs with tentacles that actively carry bacteria and dirt that are dangerous to humans, which provokes infection with various infections.
The size of a housefly, as a rule, does not exceed 8 mm. Oddly enough, males are usually much more fewer females. Distinctive feature of a domestic specimen is a broken-shaped vein on the wings just before the edge.
Green or carrion fly
This unpleasant, but quite colorful creature can be found on garden plots, near peat or manure. They prefer habitats near sewage with a specific odor.
Ilyinitsa-beekeeper
Quite a large specimen (1.5 cm.) dark color, covered with numerous fluffy hairs.
It is dangerous because if the larvae accidentally enter human body serious intestinal diseases arise.
Fly ktyr
A huge predator that eats midges, mosquitoes, etc. Unlike its fellows, the insect brings great benefit to humans, exterminating unnecessary pests and dangerous insects.
Their habitat is any rotting food, where there are other small insects and larvae on which it feeds.
Tsetse fly
Lives in the vastness of Africa and feeds on the blood of cattle and wild animals.
Representatives of this class carry incurable disease, which gradually destroys all human organs and ends in death.
Hoverfly or syrphid
Very similar to a wasp. In the summer you can see such a fly hovering over flowering plants, or in a cluster of garden aphids.
This specimen is safe for humans. It feeds on the nectar of inflorescences and spider mites. The buzzing of a fly resembles the sound of rushing water, which is why it got its beautiful name.
Fly breeding stages
Most types of flies lay eggs 3 days after mating on food or waste surfaces.
The female’s capabilities are great - during her existence she can lay up to three thousand eggs! Laying occurs a maximum of 15 times during the life of a female.
The very next day, larvae appear from the eggs - maggots, which grow instantly, increasing in volume 800 times in seven days, depending on the air temperature.
The heat-loving larva can die already at +8 degrees.
Then a pupa appears, which grows and develops for another week. After just a couple of weeks, it turns into a full-fledged fly that does not change its shape for short life(3 weeks).
The fly brings dirt and unsanitary conditions into our lives, laying dangerous larvae almost everywhere. They are also carriers of many diseases and infections, are able to survive on any living organism and adapt to any habitat.
Photo of a fly
