the.com/housefly
a tiny aviator that tastes with its feet and outmaneuvers your every swat
means A common small fly (Musca domestica) that lives alongside humans, buzzing around homes, food, and waste.
from A plain English compound of "house" and "fly," both rooted in Old English ("hus" and "fleoge," the latter literally a thing that flies). The name simply marks it as the fly that shares your dwelling — distinguishing it from fruit flies, horseflies, and the rest of the buzzing tribe. "Fly" descends from the same Germanic source as the verb "to fly," so the insect is named, sensibly, for the one thing it does best.
- taste feet
- They taste food by standing on it
- liquid diet
- They vomit to dissolve solids, then drink
- reflex speed
- Reacts to threats in under 100 milliseconds
- short life
- Most live only about 28 days
- flight math
- Eyes process motion faster than human vision
musca domestica — the common housefly species, found on every inhabited continent, completes life cycle in 8-10 days
drosophila melanogaster — fruit fly used in genetics research since 1901, shares 75% of disease-causing genes with humans