Housefly

A housefly's life cycle is divided into four stages.

At each stage, the housefly's appearance changes completely.

Egg

A female fly laying an egg from its ovipositor, an organ at the tip of its abdomen.

Female houseflies seek soft and wet masses of manure, decaying plant or animal material to lay their eggs. The eggs look like tiny white grains of rice, about 0.12 cm long. The female lays up to 250 eggs at a time.

Larva

Within 24 hours, the eggs hatch into pale white larvae or maggots. It looks like a worm. The mouth is at the pointed end. At the posterior end are two black spiracles (breathing holes).

The larva spends all its time eating and growing. It moults (example sheds its skin) several times as it grows. After about five days, it changes into a pupa.

Pupa

The pupa does not feed and remains inactive. Inside the brown pupal case, the larva continues to change, gradually losing its worm-like appearance and taking on the shape of the adult housefly. In another 3-6 days, the adult housefly becomes fully formed inside the case.

Mature houseflies must expand a pounch on their head and break off the end of the pupal case to emerge. When the adult emerges, it wings are still moist and soft. The air dries the wings quickly, and blood flowing into wing veins harden tem.

Adult

A housefly has reached its full size when it comes out of the pupal case. It will not grow any larger as it grows older. In another 2-3 days, the adult housefly is able to reproduce.

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