---
title: "What the sources say about the Housefly | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "51 claims from the Housefly profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
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canonical: "https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/housefly/sources/"
---

# What the sources say about the Housefly (*Musca domestica*)

> 51 claims from the Housefly profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Housefly](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/housefly/)

## Musca domestica. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Musca_domestica/

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A fly that tastes with its feet | they taste their food through their feet (note: tagline) |
| sips only liquids | Houseflies can only intake food in liquid form (note: tagline) |
| Not Evaluated | IUCN Red List [Link] Not Evaluated (note: ADW's IUCN line. The prefetch found no Red List assessment DOI and GBIF holds no category for Musca domestica.) |
| Almost anywhere, in cities and the countryside, especially where people live | Houseflies are found almost anywhere, especially in areas that humans also inhabit ... Houseflies live in both urban and rural areas (note: stats.habitat) |
| Liquids only: milk, sugar, blood, dung and decaying matter | Houseflies can only intake food in liquid form (note: stats.diet, first clause) |
| milk, sugar, blood, dung and decaying matter | The main food sources of houseflies are milk, sugar, blood, feces, and decaying organic matter (note: stats.diet; dung = feces) |
| Tastes food with its feet and coats hard food in saliva and stomach fluid to break it down | To break down harder foods, houseflies deposit saliva and stomach contents from their crop onto their food ... they taste their food through their feet (note: stats.superpower) |
| A housefly tastes with its feet. | they taste their food through their feet |
| Taste hairs, many of them on its feet, do the sampling. | Houseflies taste food through taste hairs, many of which are located on their feet |
| That is why houseflies tend to crawl on food. | This is why houseflies have a tendency to crawl on food. (note: ADW's own 'This is why', following the foot-taste sentence.) |
| Houseflies can only take in food as a liquid, through sponge-like mouthparts. | mouthparts of adults are sponge-like ... Houseflies can only intake food in liquid form |
| They cannot ingest particles larger than 0.045 mm. | Houseflies cannot ingest particles larger than .045 mm (note: ADW prints .045 mm; same value as 0.045) |
| To deal with harder food, a fly puts saliva and stomach contents from its crop (a storage pouch) onto it, which makes it easier to digest. | To break down harder foods, houseflies deposit saliva and stomach contents from their crop onto their food, which makes it easier to digest (note: "a storage pouch" is a plain-language gloss of crop, not from the source.) |
| Straw-coloured spots on food may show where a fly regurgitated | Straw-colored spots on food may indicate where the housefly regurgitated (note: "or brought food back up" is a gloss of regurgitated.) |
| Dark spots are its droppings. | Houseflies also leave feces on food, which show up as dark spots |
| An adult is 4 to 8 mm long, and 6.35 mm on average | Houseflies are 4 to 8 mm long, and 6.35 mm long on average |
| a wingspan of 13 to 15 mm | Range wingspan 13 to 15 mm |
| an average mass of 0.012 g | Average mass .012 g (note: ADW prints .012 g; same value as 0.012) |
| Females are slightly larger than males. | Females are slightly larger than males |
| Like all flies, it has one pair of wings. | Like all flies ( Diptera ), houseflies have only one pair of wings |
| The second pair is reduced to halteres, which are used for balance. | The second pair is reduced to halteres, which are used for balance |
| Animal Diversity Web says houseflies can fly in bursts up to 15 miles per hour | Houseflies can fly in bursts up to 15 miles per hour (note: ADW only; attributed. Wingbeat figure (1,000 per minute) cut by reviewer: no second source, and far below published housefly wingbeat rates.) |
| gives a typical lifespan in the wild of 15 to 25 days | Typical lifespan Status: wild 15 to 25 days (note: ADW only, attributed in the sentence. Reviewer searched every cached source for the wave: none newer states a lifespan.) |
| Houseflies are found almost anywhere, especially where people live. | Houseflies are found almost anywhere, especially in areas that humans also inhabit |
| They are believed to have come from temperate parts of the Eastern Hemisphere | They are believed to have originated in temperate regions of the Eastern Hemisphere |
| and now have a worldwide range. | Other Geographic Terms cosmopolitan (note: ADW glossary: cosmopolitan = "having a worldwide distribution".) |
| A female lays about 500 eggs in her life, in 5 to 6 batches. | A female lays approximately 500 eggs throughout her life. The female will deposit these eggs in 5 to 6 batches |
| Maggots develop best in dung heaps, garbage cans and road kill. | dung heaps, garbage cans, and mammalian road kill are the best environments for larvae to develop (note: ADW: "larva or maggot".) |
| A housefly can complete its life cycle in as little as 7 to 10 days, so as many as 10 to 12 generations may occur in one summer. | Houseflies can complete their life cycle in as little as 7 to 10 days, so as many as 10 to 12 generations may occur in one summer |
| Their feces can spread typhoid fever, diarrhea and cholera. | The feces of houseflies can spread typhoid fever, amoebic and bacillary dysentery, diarrhea, cholera |
| Houseflies do not bite. | Houseflies do not bite. |
| Their mouthparts are two fleshy, grooved lobes, and the grooves on the underside act as channels for liquid food. | Mouthparts are comprised of two fleshy, grooved lobes called the labella ... The lower surface of these lobes contains numerous transverse grooves that serve as liquid food channels |
| That design means they can only take up food that is liquid or dissolved. | Their sponge-like mouthparts require them to uptake food in either a liquid or dissolved manner (note: ADW: sponge-like mouthparts 'require them to uptake food in either a liquid or dissolved manner'.) |
| Adults are most active and live longest between 10 and 26.6 degrees Celsius. | They are most active and live longest in temperatures between 10 and 26.6 degrees Celsius |
| They go inactive below 7.2 degrees Celsius and die below 0 or above 44.4 degrees Celsius. | Adult houseflies are inactive at temperatures below 7.2 degrees Celsius and die when temperatures go below 0 degrees Celsius or above 44.4 degrees Celsius |
| flies in bursts of up to 15 miles per hour | Houseflies can fly in bursts up to 15 miles per hour (note: vibe.reason, animal half) |
| dangerLevel: Low | Houseflies do not bite. (note: Capability reading (#1249): a mechanical vector carries pathogens on its body and feces, and does nothing to a person itself; the biting vectors (tsetse fly, mosquitoes, deer tick) are Deadly because their bite delivers the pathogen. The disease risk is stated in the tagline and the blockquote.) |
| tags: scavenger | Specifically, dung heaps, garbage cans, and mammalian road kill are the best environments for larvae to develop. (note: ADW's diet key also lists scavenger and carrion.) |

## Scott et al. (2014). Genome of the house fly, Musca domestica L., a global vector of diseases with adaptations to a septic environment. Genome Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-014-0466-3

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| is a mechanical vector of more than 100 diseases | are mechanical vectors of more than 100 devastating diseases (note: tagline) |
| Genome researchers say they are always found in association with humans and human activities. | House flies are always found in association with humans and human activities |
| The house fly genome holds 146 P450 genes, which suggests enhanced detoxification | There are 146 P450 genes, plus 11 pseudogenes, in M. domestica , representing a significant increase relative to D. melanogaster and suggesting the presence of enhanced detoxification in house flies (note: 146 excludes 11 pseudogenes) |
| compared with 86 in the fruit fly | D. melanogaster , which has 86 |
| It also has 771 putative immune-related genes | We identified 771 putative immune-related genes in the house fly |
| with substantial increases in copy number and diversity over the fruit fly's immune system, consistent with life in a pathogen-rich environment | Compared with Drosophila melanogaster , the genome contains a rich resource of shared and novel protein coding genes, a significantly higher amount of repetitive elements, and substantial increases in copy number and diversity of both the recognition and effector components of the immune system, consistent with life in a pathogen-rich environment |
| Insecticides have been used on houseflies for a century, and the species evolved resistance to them quickly. | Insecticides have been used extensively for controlling house flies for a century and this pest has shown a remarkable ability to rapidly evolve resistance |
| Adult houseflies are mechanical vectors of more than 100 devastating diseases. | Adult house flies, Musca domestica L., are mechanical vectors of more than 100 devastating diseases |
| Their mobility and regular contact with dung, carcasses and garbage all contribute to their role in transmitting them. | The mobility of house flies, their regular contact with excreta, carcasses, garbage and other septic matter, and intimate association with animal pathogens and humans all contribute to their roles in transmission of these diseases |
| A century of extensive insecticide use has met what genome researchers call a remarkable ability to rapidly evolve resistance. | Insecticides have been used extensively for controlling house flies for a century and this pest has shown a remarkable ability to rapidly evolve resistance |

## Williamson et al. (1996). Identification of mutations in the housefly para-type sodium channel gene associated with knockdown resistance (kdr) to pyrethroid insecticides. Molecular and General Genetics MGG.

https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02173204

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| One important mechanism is knockdown resistance, or kdr, which confers nerve insensitivity to DDT and pyrethroid insecticides. | knockdown resistance (kdr), an important resistance mechanism that confers nerve insensitivity to DDT and pyrethroid insecticides |
| The para-type sodium channel gene has been implicated as its site. | the para-type sodium channel gene of the housefly, Musca domestica. This gene has been implicated as the site of knockdown resistance (kdr) |
| A 1996 study found a leucine-to-phenylalanine swap in that channel in two kdr strains and six super-kdr strains of diverse geographic origin, and in none of five pyrethroid-sensitive strains. | A leucine to phenylalanine replacement in the hydro-phobic IIS6 transmembrane segment was found in two independent kdr strains and six super-kdr strains of diverse geographic origin ... Neither mutation was present in five pyrethroid-sensitive strains (note: 1996 is the reference's year; 'none of five' = 'Neither mutation was present in five pyrethroid-sensitive strains'.) |