Common fruit fly
The common fruit fly is a teeny yellow-brown fly with big brick-red eyes. It loves rotting fruit, so you often see it buzzing around the fruit bowl. It is also one of the most important helpers for scientists all over the world.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Common fruit fly compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
In 1946 it became the first animal ever sent into space.
Scientists have won six Nobel Prizes for studying fruit flies.
In warm weather it can grow from egg to grown-up fly in just seven days.
Its eyes are made of hundreds of tiny parts and cover most of its head.
Behind its wings it has two tiny knobs that help it keep its balance in the air.
Most asked questions about Common fruit fly
?Where do fruit flies come from?
They are drawn to ripe and rotting fruit and lay their eggs there, so they seem to appear out of nowhere around the fruit bowl.
?Are fruit flies harmful?
No. They do not bite or sting, they are just annoying around food.
?How long do fruit flies live?
About 50 days in warm conditions, from egg to old age.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Drosophila melanogaster
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Drosophilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Drosophilidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Lesser fruit fly, Vinegar fly, Pomace fly, Banana fly
Where the facts come from
- Drosophila melanogaster (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Sanjay Acharya. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
Housefly
New World screwworm fly
Lovebug
Tsetse fly
Asian tiger mosquito
Yellow fever mosquito
Larder beetle
Cat-faced spider
Masked hunter
Indian red scorpion
Black lace-weaver
Blue-eyed ensign wasp