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Fruit fly / small vinegar fly
( Drosophila species )
Look
- The fruit fly / small vinegar fly is approx. 3 mm in size.
- It is yellow-brown or speckled.
- The fruit fly / small vinegar fly has red eyes.
- Characteristic is their slow flight with the abdomen hanging down (hovering flight).
- The fruit fly / tiny vinegar fly larvae have neither eyes nor legs and reach approximately approx. 3 mm.
Reproduction
- The females of the fruit fly / small vinegar fly lay up to 500 eggs.
- These develop within seven days.
- The whole insect (imago) lives for about two weeks.
Way of life
- The fruit fly / small vinegar fly likes to breed fermenting material, e.g. fruit and vegetable residues or residues in pubs and breweries.
- Their larvae feed on bacteria and yeast that are produced when fruits or vegetables rotting.
- But there is also brooding in contaminated drains, sewers or cleaning equipment.
Common housefly
( Musca domestica )
Look
- When fully grown, the common housefly is 5 to 8 mm in size.
- It has a grey chest with four narrow stripes, the abdomen is yellow or sand-coloured, the fourth wing vein is curved, and the wingtips are slightly pointed.
- The larva is a white, pointed maggot. There are two breathing holes at the rear end. It has no legs, and when fully developed, it reaches a size of 12 mm.
Reproduction
- The common housefly breeds in the moist, rotting biomaterial.
- She lays her eggs in groups of 120 to 150. The hatch maturity is between 8 hours and three days.
- The larval stage lasts 3 to 60 days, the pupa stage 3 to 28 days.
Way of life
- The common housefly lives in all types of buildings.
- It eats often and indiscriminately on everything that can be liquefied with saliva. Moist, decaying material is just as possible as food.
- It liquefies its food by choking digestive juices from its stomach contents onto the substrate. The resulting liquid is then taken up with the suction tube.
Gray-yellow upholstered bow tie.
( Pollenia Rudis )
Look
- The grey-yellow cushion fly grows to 6 to 10 mm in size.
- She has a dark grey-green chest section with wavy, golden-brown hair.
- Their wings overlap when at rest.
Reproduction
- The grey-yellow cushion fly lays eggs in the earth.
- The larvae are parasites of earthworms, which means that they look for an earthworm in the upper layer of the earth and dig into it. There they feed on its tissue.
Way of life
- The grey-yellow cushion fly can often be found in large clusters in the roof beams in autumn, where it hibernates.
- Their clumsy-looking flight is striking.