Musca spp.

Characteristics 

• Insect: Three part body (head/thorax /abdomen) and 6 legs
• Worldwide distribution
• Dorso-ventrally flattened, size 6 mm
• Wings
• No specific host
• Complete metamorphosis (holometabole development)

•Medical significance: 

• Carrier of over 100 different pathogens (65 of which are transmissible to humans). Contaminated body parts of the fly, e.g., Shigellosis (bacillary dysentery), regurgitated food, and excrement.

• Viruses: e.g., Polio, Coxsackie, Hepatitis

• Bacteria: e.g., Anthrax, Campylobacter, Cholera, Shigella, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus

• Protozoa: e.g., Entamoeba, Cryptosporidium, Giardia

• Helminths (parasitic worms): e.g., Taenia, Ancylostoma, Dipylidium, Diphyllobothrium, Enterobius, Trichuris, Ascaris, and occasionally Thelazia (eye worm).

• M. sorbens (bazaar fly in Africa and Asia) is also a carrier of Trachoma (Chlamydia trachomatis