Introduction to adopted animal

Hi guys! How are you doing? Hope you are in the pink of health.

So, let me introduce my adopted pet to you, a housefly! Houseflies are commonly seen as a disgusting creatures and pests because it is known as a major carrier of diseases.

It has highly habitability and rapid breeding nature. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the unique features that houseflies possess can potentially bring a huge impact in biomimicry field. So what are the capabilities of houseflies have to make them to earn a position in biomimicry industry. Let's find out!

Portrait of my adopted pet

Higher resolution of a housefly image (Karim, 2010)

You must be wondering that how and where I get a housefly. A pet shop? Obviously nope. I caught it by using a simple environmental friendly method which I learnt from my dad. Basically all you required is a bait and a water bottle. Below is the link that showed the method (pretty much similar to my method) to catch houseflies by using DIY approach. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeOmENuoO9k

Here comes the brief introduction about housefly.

A fly will undergo four distinct stages in the life which are egg, larva or maggot, pupa and adult. It takes 6 to 42 days for the egg to grow into the adult fly which influenced by temperature. The lifespan is usually 2–3 weeks but it can be as long as 3 months in cooler conditions.
Adult female normally lay eggs less than six times in its entire life and each occasion can lays up to 120-130 eggs. (Rozendaal, 2011). 

Life cycle of a housefly (Rozendaal, 2011)

The body of a housefly is covered by a hard exoskeleton of chitin, just like other insects. It is divided into 3 sections: head, thorax and abdomen (Lamb, 2016). 

Fly has a pair of big compound eyes on its head which consists of 3000 – 6000 simple eyes in each of the compound eye. So do you think that the fly can see clearer and sharper than human? Owing to the feature the eyes, it can't focus on the particulars of the environment unlike the eyes of vertebrates. Instead, the eyes of a fly provide an excellent mosaic view of everything from different angle: left, right, front and above the fly. The wide view of vision enables the fly to detect the slightest of movements from nearly every direction. Besides, the fly has three additional simple eyes named ocelli, in between the two compound eyes. The ocelli are much likely a kind of navigational device, letting the fly know which way is up. Cool isn’t? Try to imagine you have so many eyes!

Antenna which located in between the two compound eyes provides the sense of smell for food searching. For fly to taste and consumed food, it uses its proboscis, a plunger-like appendage. There are two small maxillary palps enable the fly to taste the food. The end of the proboscis is known as labellum, terminates in a spongy mouth in which fly slurps its food.

Legs of a fly allow it to taste everything it lands on as the tiny hairs also known as tarsi on the legs are function like human taste buds. So now you have an idea why the flies are always walking around in circle on food? The abdomen of the fly consists of other key organs, including a sperm-depositing aedeagus (in males) and an egg-laying ovipositor (in females). When it is not in use, it remains retracted.

To have a clearer picture on the anatomy and physiology of houseflies, feel free to look at the images below. 

Head of housefly

Anatomy of housefly

That’s all about the introduction. Did I trigger your interest toward houseflies (I mean other facts about them)? I hope I do! Stay tune for the upcoming posts to know more about houseflies. Thanks for reading until the end.

References:

Karim, M. M. (2010). File:Housefly musca domestica cropped (2).png - Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved May 21, 2016, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Housefly_musca_domestica_cropped_(2).png

Lamb, R. (2016). Housefly Anatomy: The Head - How Houseflies Work | HowStuffWorks. Retrieved May 21, 2016, from http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/housefly1.htm

Rozendaal, J. a. (2011). Houseflies. Vector Control: Methods for Use by Individuals and Communities, 6–9. http://doi.org/10.1007/SpringerReference_69984