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House Fly

Unidentified Muscidae

Description:

Diptera; Muscidae Latreille,1802. Unidentified Muscidae. I previously reached a point where I had found out that flies which regurgitate digestive fluids onto any solid food they want to eat fall into two families Calliforidae and Muscidae. Since all Muscidae have bristles and my specimens appear to be without, I must go with Unidentified Muscidae until I can find some further identifying infoormation

Habitat:

These 3 Flies were spotted in our front yard. They were sitting on the topmost leaves of the tallest stem of a Dragon Plant (Dracaena marginata). I would never have seen them from the ground, but I was up on a stepladder trying to get a picture of a Banana plant when they caught my eye. I had no idea what they were, other than 3 insects on 3 separate leaves. I was intrigued and moved the ladder to get some photos of them.

Notes:

I have now found the answer to the liquid droplets on the flies in my pictures. "House flies have sponge-like mouthparts, which are good for soaking up liquefied substances but not for eating solid foods. So, the house fly either seeks out food that is already in puddle form, or it finds a way to turn the food source into something it can manage. This is where things get kind of gross. When a house fly locates something tasty but solid, it regurgitates onto the food (which may be your food, if it's buzzing around your barbecue). The fly vomit contains digestive enzymes that go to work on the desired snack, quickly predigesting and liquefying it so the fly can lap it up." https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-fa... . Now I realize that everybody out there probably knew what the droplets were and if you didn't know before, you do now. As for myself I think I was happier when I didn't know.

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2 Comments

John B.
John B. a year ago

Good Evening SukanyaDatta, thank you again for your comment. It is very comforting to know that you are having a look at some of my spottings from time to time. Your comments are helpful and encouraging. My interest in nature really only started a few years ago as a retirement hobby and I became aware of Project Noah almost from the start. I did not join P.N. at that time because I knew that I it would be unworkable for me. At that time the internet service was almost non-existent where we live (a remote corner of Philippines). I was lucky to get a WiFi signal for an hour or two per week. So I worked away on my own, saving all my questions and trying to rush through websites looking for answers as soon as any signal became available. It would have been impossible to communicate with others like this in those conditions. We were promised a land line connection about a year ago so I joined P/N. but the project fell through because of a problem getting a line across a wide river to where I live. So I had only one spotting until April this year when the Fibre Optic Cable finally arrived. So I am now enjoying being in projectnoah.org and learning from good people like yourself and some others. Best Ragards. John B.

SukanyaDatta
SukanyaDatta a year ago

Love your notes.

John B.
Spotted by
John B.

Palauig, Central Luzon, Philippines

Spotted on Jun 10, 2022
Submitted on Jun 10, 2022

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