NL·0547Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Musca domestica
- Family
- Muscidae
- Native to
- Probably originated in the Middle East or Central Asia; now worldwide wherever people live
- Habitat
- Human settlements, Farms, Rubbish dumps
House fly
Musca domestica
Also calledMakkhi (Urdu/Hindi) · Dhubab (Arabic) · Mosca doméstica (Spanish) · Stubenfliege (German) · Cāngying (Chinese)
Probably the most widespread insect in human company, breeding in dung and rotting waste wherever people live. It tastes with its feet, eats by spitting digestive juices onto food, and can carry the germs of typhoid, cholera and dysentery on its body.
The housefly is a fly of the suborder Cyclorrhapha. From its place of origin, perhaps in the Middle East, it has spread around the world as a commensal of humans. Adults are gray to black, with four dark, longitudinal lines on the thorax, slightly hairy bodies, and a single pair of membranous wings. They have red compound eyes, set farther apart in the slightly larger female. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iCompletes egg-to-adult development in about a week in warm weather
- iiTastes food with sensory hairs on its feet
- iiiFemales lay roughly 500 eggs in batches over their lives
- ivMechanically spreads disease-causing bacteria, viruses and parasites
- vLarvae can convert manure and food waste into protein-rich biomass
In the field
Field marks
- aGrey thorax with four dark lengthwise stripes
- bLarge reddish-brown eyes (closer together in males)
- cAbdomen grey to yellowish with a dark midline
- dA sharp upward bend in the fourth long wing vein
- Not to be confused with
- Lesser house fly (Fannia canicularis) is smaller and flies in slow circles under lights. Stable fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) has a forward-pointing piercing proboscis and bites. Flesh flies (Sarcophagidae) are larger with three thorax stripes and a chequered abdomen.
- Where to see it
- Practically anywhere people live, especially near livestock and waste.
- When
- Year-round in warm places; summer peak in temperate regions
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Life & habits
- Diet
- Adults liquefy food with saliva and sponge it up: sugars, rotting matter, dung, food scraps; larvae feed in manure and decaying waste
- Habitat
- Homes, farms, markets and anywhere with garbage or manure
- Size
- About 6–7 mm
- Lifespan
- Adults about 2–4 weeks
It cannot bite or chew; instead it regurgitates digestive fluid onto food and laps it up with a sponge-like mouth.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Probably originated in the Middle East or Central Asia; now worldwide wherever people live
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Woodcuts and engravings matched from the Source Library’s scanned books by name. Plates marked “relative” show a close kin rather than this exact species. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Musca domestica in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
The Philistine god Baal-zebub, 'Lord of the Flies' in 2 Kings, became the Beelzebub of later Jewish and Christian tradition; William Golding borrowed the phrase for his 1954 novel.
Curiosity
Its maggots are now farmed in some countries to turn manure and food waste into protein feed for poultry and fish.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 120156.