Houseflies, referred to as Musca domestica by biologists, are two-winged bugs which are discovered virtually in all places in the world the place people and their animals stay.
Houseflies could be greater than annoying; they’ll unfold illness and multiply quickly in the proper situations. Now that scorching climate has arrived, so have ample populations of houseflies and their cousins: mosquitoes, gnats, deerflies and horseflies.
In celebration of summer season, which begins Tuesday, I invite you to take this enjoyable quiz about that frequent summer season companion, the common housefly. The solutions are at the finish.
1. Name the solely nation in the world that doesn’t have houseflies.
2. True or false: Houseflies chunk.
3. True or false: Maggots (the larval stage) of the inexperienced bottle fly are used to deal with wounds that don’t reply to antibiotics.
4. How do houseflies stroll on partitions and ceilings?
5. How lengthy, on common, do houseflies stay?
6. How do houseflies eat?
7. What is the common velocity of a housefly in flight?
8. How do houseflies know when one thing is sweet to eat?
9. Name 4 illnesses that houseflies can unfold.
10. What colour are a housefly’s eyes?
11. Where do houseflies like to put their eggs?
12. True or false: Maggots are filthy and germ-infested.
Answers
1. Iceland.
2. False. However, their shut relative, the secure fly, appears to be like very comparable and does chunk.
3. True. Green bottle fly maggots which are utilized in wound remedy are raised in sterile labs and bought to wound facilities. Maggots eat useless and decaying flesh and may save lives when antibiotics fail to kill infections brought on by micro organism corresponding to MRSA. Maggots produce anti-microbial secretions that promote therapeutic of diabetic ulcers, gangrene and burns. They additionally stimulate blood stream to injured areas.
4. Glandular pads on the soles of their toes secrete a fluid. The attraction between this fluid and any stable floor is larger than the power of gravity, permitting the fly stroll the other way up.
5. The egg and pupa stage collectively lake about two weeks, and grownup flies stay about two extra weeks. Life span depends on meals and temperature.
6. After a fly vomits digestive enzymes onto its meals supply, it laps up the ensuing liquified stays with its sponge-like tongue.
7. Average flight velocity of a housefly is a mere 4.5 mph, in comparison with a dragonfly’s 35 mph.
8. They scent rotting meals with chemical receptors of their foot pads.
9. In sufficiently giant numbers they seemingly transmit salmonella, E. coli, chlamydia, typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, polio, anthrax, leprosy and tuberculosis.
10. Red. Their compound eyes have 365-degree imaginative and prescient.
11. Houseflies like to put their eggs in manure, rotting vegetation and rubbish. The eggs gained’t hatch except they keep moist.
12. Maggots themselves are very clear. They secrete enzymes to guard themselves from micro organism and fungi.
Sheryl Myers taught biology and environmental science for 34 years and has labored as a naturalist for space parks. She is a founding director of Heart of the River Coalition.