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In the Fact File section we bring you a new collection of quick facts each week. (Click on the links below for more facts)

 
 

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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