Sarcophaga spp.

SPECIES: Sarcophaga spp. ( order Diptera )

COMMON NAME: Common flesh fly

SIZE: 10 - 14 mm

LIFECYCLE: about a week. The larvae develop very quickly

FEATURES: grey fly with longitudinal bands that are darker on the prothorax. FEATURES: larger than flies with metallic colours, noisy during flight. Often, especially in houses, warehouses and garages, large numbers of these flies is a clear sign of the presence of a corpse. In Italy, the larva are called silkworms. The larve is a small whitish worm (just a few mm maximum long, and up to a couple of mm wide), which, prior its metamorphosis, spends its life feeding on decaying meat. The Sarcophaga carnaria is viviparous. It lays its larvae directly into rotting flesh (dead animals, food leftovers, etc.) which then grow very quickly. The larvae, within a few days (assuming optimum conditions of temperature and food), emerge shortly after in the form of the adult fly. The larva is widely used in sport fishing due to its long life.

HABITAT: near fishmongers, slaughterhouses, landfills, etc. They prefer to lay in very flaky meat, and can smell the corpse from several km away. Only in the absence of these will they eggs on droppings and other decaying material.

DAMAGE: These flies lay eggs on meat or protein substances, including the dead bodies of small animals (rats etc.) and are therefore dangerous carriers of pathogens. Human ingestion of infected food (fortunately quite a rare event today) is harmful.

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