Oriental Latrine Fly

Chrysomya megacephala

a Calliphorid fly found at Eldoret, Kenya, Oct. 2010. Photo © by Michael Plagens

This fly is alighted on foliage of Solanum incanum on the Chepkoilel Campus in Eldoret, Kenya, October 2010. Identification offered by @lacerdajulio and @waswala.

As much as people can complain about flies zipping about a restaurant dining room or as a writhing mass of maggots emerging from a carcass, everyone ought to marvel at the fly in its perfection of beauty, economy and functional design. Indeed as blowflies help remove putrid remains of dead creatures they leave our world more tidy as they flaunt their accomplishments in the sunshine.

From Wikipedia:
C. megacephala's eggs are "oval with one flat face and another convex".[2] Adult flies reflect a metallic blue-green color on their thorax and abdomen and have yellow gena, or cheeks.[3] Larvae vary in size according to instar and are shaped more thickly towards the rear.[4] They have large red eyes, those of males being close together, and those of females farther apart.[5] The cercus of the male is longer than that of the female.

Calliphoridae -- Blow Fly Family

More Information:


Kenya Natural History

Copyright Michael J. Plagens. Page created 16 Dec. 2010,
updated 12 Sept. 2017.