Friday – A Flower and a Fly

~ laura lecce
A Flower and a Fly - Photograph by Laura Lecce
A Flower and a Fly – Photograph by Laura Lecce

Today I present to you this fly……on a flower. This fly is called a green bottle fly because of the shiny metallic green color of its body. Flies such as these have very important uses in both forensic science and medicine. They are often the first flies to arrive at a human or animal carcass, and this is where they can begin their lifecycle – A female will lay about 200 eggs which hatch and become larvae in 1-3 days, fully developed larvae in 3-10 days, and pupal development takes 6-14 days after which an adult fly emerges. Forensic investigators can use this knowledge to approximate the length of time a deceased has been dead.

These flies (or more correctly, the maggots) are used by doctors to treat wounds which are unresponsive to conventional treatments. They eat away the dead tissue and bacteria, and also secrete antimicrobial enzymes which together prevents infection and allows healthy tissue to grow successfully. Given the increasing resistance of bacteria to known antibiotics, this may just become the medicine of the future. Sorry to give such a literal example of making your skin crawl….

Happy weekend everyone!

18 thoughts on “Friday – A Flower and a Fly”

  4. Wonderful photo, Laura! I am always taken byt the bright green hues of these flies, and how they vary from greenish through to copperish. Very interesting information also. Happy weekend to you, too!

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    1. Thanks Pete, this was a cool find for me, as Australian blowflies are so ugly! These do have such variation in color, it was great to see so many of them all over these flowers, obviously enjoying the nectar along with the butterflies.

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