Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Phormia regina
Summary
Phormia regina, the black blow fly, belongs to the blow fly family Calliphoridae and was first described by Johann Wilhelm Meigen.
The black blow fly's wings are specialized with a sharp bend. These flies are also have well-developed calypters. Blow flies generally are about the size of a house fly or a little larger, and many are metallic blue or green in color. Key characteristics of this species include black gena, mostly white calypters, and anterior thoracic spiracles that appear to be orange yellow due to being surrounded by bright orange setae.
P. regina is especially important to forensic entomology. Female P. regina, like other blow flies in the family Calliphoridae, oviposit their eggs on carrion, where they hatch. The larvae develop through three instar stages until pupation. Adult black blow flies aggregate on feces in order to mate. The success of these mating interactions has been studied appears related to size and diet of the adult flies. Following successful mating encounters, the adult females are then attracted to decaying material rather quickly for oviposition, allowing forensic entomologists to use development stages of larva as a clue in determining an approximate time of death. P. regina are extremely common in the United States and other areas in North America. Combined with their importance in forensic entomology, these flies have been relatively well studied, particularly for variables affecting their development.
Phormia regina was described by the German entomologist Johann Wilhelm Meigen in 1826. Its specific epithet is derived from the Latin word regina meaning 'queen'.
Phormia regina adults are metallic blue or green in color and have a distinctive set of orange setae near the anterior thoracic spiracle. They are also recognizable by their black gena (the side of the head below eye level), mostly white calypteres, and the distinctive bend in their wings.
P. regina is commonly found across the entirety of the United States as well as across other regions in North America
P.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.