housefly (Musca musca domestica)

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TUTMOS baku, Azerbaidjan(Zone 9b) Nov 21, 2008

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Post #5815035
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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Nov 21, 2008

Hi TUTMOS,

I am wondering if you have mistaken the identity of this fly. I am not an expert on flies, but have been researching them for some time (I take many fly pics :)). This looks to me like Calliphora vicina, which I have just added to BugFiles in Calliphoridae.

The reddish face is a good clue, and I think I can see some black 'beard' hairs. The wing veination is not the easiest to see.

Here are some pics of Musca domestica, which I think I have a pic of too but I am not certain as some flies can be difficult to ID without a specimen or very detailed pics from all angles. This fly is also much smaller than Calliphora vicina, which we call the Blue Bottle due to it's blue colouring.

http://www.insect-photo.com/Photos/Musca%20domestica.jpg

The strange thing I have noticed about Musca domestica is some have yellowish abdomens while others look to have greyish-ochre ones, of the same sex but perhaps that is an error with wrongly named flies.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Musca_domestica_September_2007-1.jpg

http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Flies/SpFlies/Musca.domestica.html

The best place to look for flies to be accurately named is a diptera site, but even then some would need a specimen to identify unless microscopic pictures could be seen as it often depends on minute differences such as the angle of a hair on the legs!

Your fly is a female.

http://diptera.info/photogallery.php?album_id=29&rowstart=120

Post #5815781
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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Nov 21, 2008

There is apparently no Musca musca domestica, I have found two subspecies Musca domestica domestica and Musca domestica vicina. We have an entry for Musca domestica which would be M. domestica domestica but the pic in that entry doesn't look like Musca domestica either.

http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=all&search_value=Musca+domestica&search_kingdom=every&search_span=exactly_for&categories=All&source=html&search_credRating=All

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/397/

I found a pic of the subspecies which is the Oriental House Fly.

http://www.nih.go.jp/niid/entomology/picture.html



This message was edited Nov 21, 2008 10:33 PM

Post #5817169
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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Nov 21, 2008

I can't post what I had put, something's not working!

Post #5817175
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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Nov 21, 2008

OK, try again as the edit didn't work either. (Help, lol!)

There is apparently no

This message was edited Nov 21, 2008 10:36 PM

Post #5817177
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kennedyh Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a) Nov 24, 2008

TUTMOS
I agree will wallaby1 in her assessment above that your fly is not the House Fly Musca domestica, but is actually the Blue Bottle Fly Calliphora vicina. I have therefore moved your images of this fly to our entry for Calliphora vicina here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/5431/

Kennedy
BugFiles Administrator

Post #5823980
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bonitin Gent, Belgium(Zone 8a) Nov 24, 2008

Tutmos, perhaps you could edit the description of your picture because it says ; 'musca domestica 0001' Might be confusing? :-)

Post #5824052
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kennedyh Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a) Nov 24, 2008

I have changed Musca domestica into Calliphora vicina in the captions of both images,

Kennedy

Post #5824652
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