Housefly
| Housefly | ||||||||||||
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Housefly ( Musca domestica ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Musca domestica | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The housefly ( Musca domestica ; Latin musca “fly”, domesticus “domestic”), also common housefly or large housefly (to distinguish it from the small housefly ), is a fly from the family of real flies (Muscidae).
features
1 compound eye
2 sensor bristle ( Arista )
3 sensor ( antenna )
4 mandible button ( palp maxillary )
5 upper lip ( labrum )
6 lip ( labium )
7 spoon ( Labellum )
8 stamp
B thorax:
9 Präscutum
10 Front blowhole ( stigma )
11 neck plate ( Scutum )
12 Basicosta
13 Calypter
14 tag ( scutellum )
15 vane
16 vane cores
17 Propleuron
18 Prosternum
19 Mesopleuron
20 Mesosternum
21 Metapleuron
22 Metasternum
C abdomen:
23 hip ( coxa )
24 thigh ( femur )
25 lower leg ( tibia )
26 Seta
27 Foot ( tarsus )
28 Haltere
29 Posterior breathing hole ( stigma )
30 Posterior abdominal segment
The body structure generally corresponds to that of real flies . Size, color and wing veining serve as morphological distinguishing features to other species . They have leak-sucking mouthparts . Adult houseflies are six to seven millimeters long, their bodies are gray and have four longitudinal stripes on the thorax . The underside of the trunk is yellowish, its extremities are black, the body is completely covered with hair. They have red compound eyes . The bodies of female flies are somewhat larger and their eye relief is usually somewhat larger than that of male specimens. In the rest position, the wings are spread at a narrow angle. Because of their similar appearance, they can easily be confused with common biting flies .
Occurrence
Musca domestica occurs almost everywhere in the world ( cosmopolitan ), it is only not found in deserts , polar and high alpine landscapes. Their distribution is usually associated with humans, as the greatest food supply is in their vicinity.
Houseflies are bred for research purposes and as animal feed, among other things.
Way of life
The housefly lives for 6 to 70 days after hatching from the barrel pupa , depending on the ambient temperature and food availability, with females usually living a little longer than males. The flight speed is around 2.9 meters per second (around 10 km / h), the fly flaps its wings around 180-330 times per second. Flies can smell butyric acid as an indication of putrefaction and intestinal waste . At the Fußendgliedern ( Tarsus ) they possess chemoreceptors , by which they can taste sugar. They lay their eggs in putrefactive substances and excrement ( coprophagia ), on which the larvae feed. The adults suck on all nutritious liquids and also on solid, water-soluble substances that they can dissolve with the help of their saliva, such as sugar.
After landing on vertical surfaces, house flies always quickly align their heads downwards.
Their behavior and service life are very dependent on the ambient conditions such as temperature and humidity, with the optimum temperature between 20 and 25 ° C and immobilization taking place from a minimum temperature of 15 ° C. This also explains the development into a diurnal temporal specialist with the highest population size in the summer months.
Reproduction and development
As holometabolic insects, the house flies go through a complete metamorphosis, which is divided into egg, three larval stages, pupa and imago . The females lay their eggs in decomposing organic material such as manure , garbage , compost and food . The larvae then develop there. In the summer months, females lay between 150 and 400 eggs per egg laying several times with an interval of three to four days. Good environmental conditions, for example in stables, allow up to 15 generations per year ( plurivoltin ). The ambient temperature affects the time it takes for the eggs to mature to hatch. At 16 ° C the larvae hatch in 46 hours, at 19 ° C in 19 hours and at 30 ° C in just 10 hours. The headless and legless fly maggots can only move awkwardly with body curves on smooth surfaces. They feed on the organic material (substrate) on which they hatched and reach a length of 12 mm. Nutrition is made possible by mouthparts with forceps-like mouth hooks. At the same time, this implies breathing through skin breathing and spirals , which are located at the end of the body.
After molting twice in the course of growth, the contents of the digestive tract are emptied at the end of the third larval stage. An immobilization of the maggots caused by genetic changes begins . Their skin hardens, and the larvae develop into barrel pupae , which are significantly smaller and darker than the larvae. A transformation begins within such a doll, which takes 3 to 8 days depending on the temperature. After the development has been completed, the so-called arched seam on the head is pressed into a bubble for hatching, which enables the imago to leave the doll through an opening at the head end ( hatchers ). The houseflies mate just 3 days after hatching and the females are then ready to lay their eggs for the first time. The metamorphosis from egg to fly can be completed in 7 days under good environmental conditions, in temperate latitudes it takes 2 to 3 weeks. Apart from wintering animals, the lifespan is a few weeks. Taking in liquid and nutrients with its swab proboscis, a female housefly can survive for a good 10 weeks in a kitchen that is not too warm.
Benefit and harm
The housefly as a disease vector
House flies are generally considered pests because they serve as vectors for pathogens despite being cleaned . For example, they are carriers of various infectious diseases such as dysentery , typhus , cholera , salmonellosis , polio and foot-and-mouth disease . The pathogen is transmitted in particular via the excretions of the flies.
Their function as a disease carrier is due to their food sources, as they have a preference for human and animal excretions such as sweat and feces as well as festering wounds. Furthermore, carrion ( necrophagia ) serves as a protein-rich food source for egg-laying and larval development.
A large-scale control (→ insect protection ) would not necessarily be expedient, since on the one hand resistance to insecticides develops very quickly and the population size is contained by natural predators anyway. In order to limit the places of spread and transmission of diseases, all that is recommended is a sufficient standard of hygiene and clean handling of waste and decomposition products.
Fly maggots as animal feed
The housefly is used as a food insect . In the EU it is approved for use in aquaculture . There are approaches there to use the housefly larvae as a source of protein and thus to replace conventional fish meal . The basis for this is blood from slaughterhouses. AgriProtein received the Innovation Prize for Africa 2013 for this idea.
Possible confusion
The calf stick ( Stomoxys calcitrans ) looks very similar to the housefly and is able to pierce human skin in order to suck blood. The sting is painful and can also transmit disease.
See also
literature
- Jason H. Byrd, James L. Castner: Forensic Entomology. The Utility of Arthropods in Legal Investigations. Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 2010, ISBN 978-0-8493-9215-3 .
- Wilfried Westheide , Reinhard Rieger (Hrsg.): Special zoology. Part 1. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1996, ISBN 3-437-20515-3 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ J. Hwangbo include: Utilization of house fly maggots, a feed supplement in the production of broiler chickens . In: Journal of Environmental Biology . 30, No. 4, 2009, pp. 609-614. PMID 20120505 .
- ↑ Wilfried Westheide, Reinhard Rieger (Ed.): Special Zoology . Part 1. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1996, p. 629 .
- ↑ Johannes Keiding: The housefly - biology and control. Training and information guide . World Health Organization, Vector Biology and Control Division, 1986.
- ↑ Wilfried Westheide, Reinhard Rieger (Ed.): Special Zoology . Part 1. Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, Jena 1996, p. 680 .
- ↑ Flying. Accessed July 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Heiko Joachim Koch: Forensic Entomology: Pre- and post-mortem corpse colonization by insects . 2002 ( benecke.com [PDF; 4.5 MB ] Diploma thesis).
- ↑ Katharina Schmitt: Forensic Entomology - The Development of Necrophagic Insects to Determine the Time to Lie in a Dead Body . 2010 ( benecke.com [PDF; 2.8 MB ] thesis).
- ↑ Regulation (EU) 2017/893 of the Commission of May 24, 2017 amending Annexes I and IV of Regulation (EC) No. 999/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council as well as Annexes X, XIV and XV of the Regulation (EU ) No. 142/2011 of the Commission regarding the provisions on processed animal protein , on eur-lex.europa.eu, accessed on February 18, 2019
- ↑ AgriProtein's managing director sees maggots as next protein alternative
- ↑ Innovation Prize for Africa Winner Uses Flies and Waste to Make Food ( Memento from September 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )