House Fly

Anybody remember those crows in funny hats from the film Dumbo? They were chatting about whether any of them had ever seen an elephant fly just before bursting into song. No? Oh ok, just me then. Anyway, it begin with

Well I seen a horse fly

And I seen a dragon fly

Yeah I seen a house fly!

Well tonight, dear reader, I can safely say that I too have now seen a house fly. THE House-fly, in fact. Musca domestica is a scarce beast in the Highland Region. The Highland Biological Recording Group (HBRG) have a couple of pages about it here and here. The webmaster of HBRG is a keen dipterist named Murdo. He once told me that he was the only resident dipterist in the entire Highland Region (he's based in the east near Inverness) and so, after I first rocked up on Skye, he was quite keen to hear about what I was finding out here in the far west. 

I have to admit, I didn't know I had the House-fly until the very last moment as I ran it through the keys

"...so it's in Muscinae, ok. Key to genera runs fine to Musca. *turn to page 9*, ah that's the next page, cool. Musca huh, how many of those can there be? Couplet 1 - yes it has bare eyes, couplet 2 propleural depression with small black hairs or bare? Hmmm...the heck is one of those then? Ah, there's a picture. Oh, it's the bit in front of the front spiracle. Ok so... *squints*, yep I see small black hairs. Musca domestica. Cool, that was simple. HANG ON!!!"   

It's not a particularly spectacular fly, though it has several features which, in combination, make it quite easy to identify. The angle of a wing vein, the four black lines on the top of the thorax, the bare eyes, the yellow areas on the abdomen. And the coup de grâce - a bunch of small blackish hairs on the aforementioned propleural depression. Here they are, arrowed in all of their glory

If it wasn't for those wee hairs, plus a coupla other fine details, it would be Musca autumnalis. I've yet to knowingly see that species, and I'm unlikely to unless I head southwards a few hundred miles. One for another time, maybe.

I figured Murdo would like to know about it, so sent him a load of images. He came back with this

In certain circles that would deserve a dram, Seth! I don’t think any more images are needed. It is a really scarce fly, though we have had 6 records this year from Uig to Ft William to the Black Isle.

Anyway, to inject a splash of colour into a rather grey post, here are those crazy crows singing to an elephant that can fly

Seeing as there are a load of black crows in that vid, have some proper head bobbin' music. I fully expect lots of screaming into an imaginary mic too.