Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Musca domestica?

Posted by Tony Irwin on 01-09-2006 15:16
#4

No,we have two females (lower, with broader abdomens and wider frons) and one male (upper, with narrower abdomen and frons).
The colour of Musca domestica abdomen varies, often depending on where you are. Sometimes (as in your photo) both male and female have pale side patches. In autumnalis the male often has bright orange patches, but the female is all grey.
It's safer to rely on the relative widths of the frons and orbits. In autumnalis the male eyes are narrowly separated, and the female frontal orbits are very wide (each nearly as wide as the frontalia). In domestica the male eyes are separated by about twice the width of the third antennal segment, and the female orbits are only about a fifth the width of the frontalia.
And don't forget that although these are the commonest species, there are other species in Europe as well.

Edited by Tony Irwin on 01-09-2006 15:19