ENY 3005 Family Identification

Diptera: Muscidae

 Common name: house flies, stable flies

Identifying characteristics for the family Muscidae include:

• Suborder Cyclorrhapha: antennae 3-segmented, aristate; vein Rs 2-branched.

Division Schizophora: frontal suture present.
Section Calyptratae: calypters well developed.
• Arista usually plumose for the entire length.
• Hypopleuron usually without bristles; generally more than one sternopleural bristle.
• R5 cell either parallel sided or narrowed distally.
• Vein 2A short and not reaching wing margin.

• Over 700 species in North America.
• Larvae breed in decaying plant material or manure.
• Adults of many species bite or passively vector pathogens for diseases such as typhoid fever, dysentery, anthrax, and African sleeping sickness.

References:

• Page 306 and plate 14 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Page 349 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Page 568 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 513-521 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

Links to other web sites

• Musca domestica Linnaeus, house fly