housefly (also house fly, house-fly or common housefly), Musca domestica, head on face portrait
Each female fly can lay approximately 500 eggs in several batches of about 75 to 150. The eggs are white and are about mm in length. Within a day, larvae (maggots) hatch from the eggs; they live and feed in (usually dead and decaying) organic material, such as garbage or faeces. They are pale-whitish, 3–9 mm long, thinner at the mouth end, and have no legs. They live at least one week. At the end of their third instar, the maggots crawl to a dry cool place and transform into pupae, colored reddish or brown and about 8 mm long. The adult flies then emerge from the pupae. (This whole cycle is known as complete metamorphosis.) The adults live from two weeks to a month in the wild, or longer in benign laboratory conditions. After having emerged from the pupae, the flies cease to grow; small flies are not young flies, but are indeed the result of getting insufficient food during the larval stage.
Size: 4323px × 3963px
Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: domestica, face, feces, head, housefly, musca, portrait, refuse, saliva, sputum
