| Special
Flies Fact File
2721/ House fly eggs
are laid in almost any type of warm organic material. Animal
or poultry manure is an excellent breeding medium. Fermenting
vegetation such as grass clippings and garbage can also provide
a medium for fly breeding. The whitish eggs, which are laid
in clusters of 75-100, hatch within 24 hours into tiny larvae
or maggots. In 4 to 6 days the larvae migrate to drier portions
of the breeding medium and pupate. The pupa stage may vary
in length considerably, but in warm weather can be about three
days. When the adult emerges from the puparium, the wings
are folded in tight pads.
2722/ Generally, however,
flies are abundant in the immediate vicinity of their breeding
site. Under certain conditions, they may migrate 1 to 4 miles,
but are usually limited to one-half to 2 miles.
2723/ Blow flies usually
lay eggs on dead animals or decaying meat. Garbage cans have
been known to produce 30,000 blow flies in one week. The life
cycle usually lasts 9-21 days from egg to adult.
2724/ In 1904, Walter
S. Sutton, an American cytologist, decided there might be
some connection between Gregor Mendel's 1860s research and
the newly discovered chromosomes with their genes. A major
breakthrough came in 1906, when Thomas Hunt Morgan, a Columbia
University zoologist, conceived the idea of using fruit flies
(Drosophila melanogaster) for genetic research. This was due
to the fact that they breed so very rapidly, require little
food, have scores of easily observed characteristics and only
a few chromosomes per cell.
2725/ Flies are one of
the major success's of the insect world, and the 120 000+
species are divided into three sub-orders, the Nematocera,
(larva with complete head and horizontally biting mandibles,
pupa obtect, generally free, antennae of adults usually many
segmented, pleural suture of mesothorax generally straight);
the Brachycera, (larva with incomplete head and vertically
biting mandibles, pupa obtect, generally free,antennae of
adult generally three segmented, pleural suture of mesothorax
twice bent); and the Cyclorrhapha, (larva with vestigial head,
pupa exarate, usually in a puparium, antennae of adult with
three segments, pleural suture twice bent, head with frontal
lunule and a ptilinum), and these in turn are divided into
about 100 families.
2726/ There are 6,500+
species of fly living in Britain alone. (There are over 16,000+
in North America)
2727/ Though everyone
thinks of spiders feeding primarily on flies, and it is true
that spiders eat an awful lot of flies, the spiders don't
always get it all their own way. A Dance Fly Microphorus crassipes
(Empididae) steals much of its food from the spiders own web.
Robber Flies (Asillidae) have been observed catching and eating
spiders which were sitting on a blade of grass.
2728/ A whole family
of flies the Cyrtidae (about 250 species) are all internal
parasites of spiders during their larval life. The eggs are
laid on the ground and the first instar larva wait on damp
vegetation for a passing spider. They leap up and attach themselves
to the spiders body where they slowly eat their way through
its cuticle before eating the spider from the inside out.
2729/ Though some flies
are very common and can be found all over the world some are
very rare i.e. Mormotomyia hirsuta a largish fly which lives
in a crack about a meter wide in the rocky outcrop at the
top of Ukazzi Hill in Kenya. The larva feed on the dung of
the bats which also live in this rocky crevice, and it is
believed the adults feed on the sweat and other body secretions
of the bats. This is the only place in the world where this
fly has ever been found.
2730/ Flies range in
size from 1/20th of an inch to well over three inches.
2731/ One of the things
that separate Flies ( Diptera) from other flying insects are
their wings. Flies are the only insects that have only two.
All other insects have four wings.
2732/ Entomologists Dr.
Yao and Dr. Yuan of China studied more than 378,046 common
house flies and estimated that each carried no less than 1,941,000
bacteria on their bodies. Another source estimates that 33
million microorganisms may flourish in a single fly's gut.
2733/ In 1923, Black
flies in swarms were reportedly responsible for the deaths
of more than 20,000 sheep, horses and cattle in Rumania and
Bulgaria.
2734/ Flies have 4000
lenses in each eye.
2735/ The average house
fly lives on average 21 days and beats its wings an average
of 200 times per second. That means that during it's short
lifetime the average house fly will beat its wings 1,814,400
times!
2736/ The list of diseases
the common house fly carries and spreads include many of the
worst killers of mankind; Typhoid, Cholera, Gangrene, Tuberculosis,
Gonorrhea, Bubonic Plague, Leprosy, Diptheria, Scarlet Fever,
Amoebic Dysentery, Poliomyelitis, and many others. Some flies
prefer the eye and transfer the microbes of Pink Eye, Conjunctivitis,
and Trachoma from diseases eyes to your healthy eyes. Others
spread Yaws, a skin disease, when they feed on your cuts and
sores.
2737/ Houseflies watch
each other constantly and follow each other to food sources.
That's why there are always so many enjoying the same food.
2738/ USDA sources reveal
that flies contaminate or destroy 10 billion dollars of agricultural
products each year.
2739/ In the 1960s, animal
behavior researchers studied the effects of various substances
on spiders. When spiders were fed flies that had been injected
with caffeine, they spun very "nervous" webs. When
spiders ate flies injected with LSD, they spun webs with wild,
abstract patterns. Spiders that were given sedatives fell
asleep before completing their webs.
2740/ The weight of insects
eaten by spiders every year is greater than the total weight
of the entire human population. (Editor's
Joke - What do you call a spider who's eaten too many flies?
A: A Fatty Long Legs!)
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