Housefly - unnamed 4

Phaonia angelicae is a widespread and frequent insect in England.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Phaonia angelicae
Family: 
House flies
Family Latin name: 
MUSCIDAE
Category: 
Insects other
Vernacular names: 

Yellow-winged Bristleshin (Steven Falk)

Species description

Species description

Phaonia angelicae (the one shown here is a female) is a widespread and frequent housefly in England. It visits flowers for nectar.

These flies are between 8 and 10 millimetres long. Males are lighter in colour than females.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

Houseflies are commonly associated with people and can be found where they dwell, even in the Arctic. They are grey to black, have bristly thoraxes and red eyes. Adult houseflies have short lives of no more than a month or so. They can hibernate through our winter months.

Category information

Insects evolved in the Ordovician from a crustacean ancestral lineage as terrestrial invertebrates with six legs (the Hexapoda). This was the time when terrestrial plants first appeared. In the Devonian some insects developed wings and flight, the first animals to do so. An early flying group was the Odonata from the Carboniferous, the damselflies and dragonflies, which have densely-veined wings and long, ten-segmented bodies. They are day-flying carnivores, with an aquatic larval stage, so are commonly seen flying near water. The carnivorous larvae are called nymphs. Odonata species are short-lived, damselflies surviving for 2-4 weeks, dragonflies for up to 2 months.

Some insect groups in the Cretaceous co-evolved with the flowering plants, and they have had a close association ever since. These groups are the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the Diptera (flies), and the Coleoptera (beetles). The diversity of beetles is astonishing. Of all the known animal species on the planet, one in five is a beetle!