Subject: What kind of fly is this?
Location: Illinois
October 29, 2012 4:34 pm
These are flying all around in our my apartment buildings hallway. They have been following me in and I now have them flying around my apartment. They don’t seem to fly a lot though. They tend to land and then dart around really fast. This has made them fairly easy to kill. I have never seen flies like these before and am not seeing them online anywhere. I have noticed that when I kill one a very small reddish orange bug comes off of it. The last one I killed had two of these tiny bugs crawl out or off of it. I have had a hard time getting a good pic of these but I have attached the best one I have. Any info you have would be much appreciated as I am so sick of dealing with these things.
Signature: J Crellin
Dear J Crellin,
We will be checking with Eric Eaton for assistance on this identification.
Eric Eaton assists in Humpbacked Flies identification
Yes, Daniel, those are humpbacked flies, family Phoridae. Probably Megaselia scalaris, by far the most abundant indoor species. They feed on decaying matter as larvae, so you find them mostly in the kitchen, around the garbage disposal, etc.
Eric
Keep working ,fantastic job!
Do you know what the orange-reddish mites are that come off of the Phoridae? Also, can Phoridae start as small all-black flies and turn lighter as they grow or am I dealing with two different types of flies? Only the larger, definitely Phoridae, flies are infested with these mites.