- NEW!
by Sunblynd 5.0 on September 17th, 2006
Common Housefly Life Cycle;
Each female fly can lay up to 500 eggs (in five batches of 100 eggs each). The eggs are white and are about 1.2 mm in length. Within a day, the larvae (maggots) hatch from the eggs; they live and feed in (usually dead and decaying) organic material, such as garbage or feces. They are pale whitish, 3-9 mm long, thinner at the mouth end, and have no legs. 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 half a month 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 the result of insufficient food during the larval stage.
Some 36 hours after having emerged from the pupa, the female is receptive for mating. The male mounts her from behind to inject sperm. Normally the female mates only once, storing the sperm to use it repeatedly for several sets of eggs. Males are territorial: they will defend a certain territory against other males and will attempt to mount any females that enter that territory.
Housefly pupae killed by parasitic wasp larvae. Each pupa has one hole through which a single adult wasp emerged; feeding occurs during the wasp's larva stage.
The flies depend on warm temperatures; generally, the warmer the temperature the faster the flies will develop. In the winter, most of them survive in the larval or pupa stage in some protected warm location.
Some species of wasps can parasitize and kill the pupae.
From what distance can a fly smell food?
by cehowski on July 9th, 2011
| 1 person likes this
If a fly lands into your soup,do you scoop it out and finish it,or do you just dump it out altogether?
by corruptedsoul on July 7th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
A fruit fly landed on my apricot mango yogurt, and I didn't realize it was there until after I put a spoonful in mouth. Perhaps I'll die?
by Quiet_Listener on July 20th, 2011
| 3 people like this
Have you ever seen maggots before? Did one ever touch your skin?
by solsticexcorona on June 29th, 2011
| 2 people like this
How does the fly get in my house?
by XT on July 7th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
You're reading What's the lifespan of a fly?
Your favorite Q&A site is on Facebook! Become a fan to connect with the ever-growing community of Answerbaggers, share your thoughts and find out what Answerbag's up to next!
Comments
Plagiarism
by Anonymous on September 17th, 2006
So what bob...I found the answer. What are you the AB police?
by Sunblynd 5.0 on September 20th, 2006
haha you tell 'em sunblynd!!!
by Kitty Kat on September 26th, 2006
You should at least cite your sources...
by Castrate on September 27th, 2006
site it yourself...wikipedia.com, everything you ever really need to know is there...I didn't realize it was such a big secret.
by Sunblynd 5.0 on September 27th, 2006