FLY, a name given to the winged stage of many insects such as butterfly (see LEPIDOPTERA), dragon-fly (q.v.), may-fly (q.v.), caddis-fly (q.v.), etc.; also specially used by entomologists to mean any species of two-winged flies or DIPTERA (q.v.). In ordi nary parlance fly is often used in the sense of the house-fly (q.v.), and by colonists and sportsmen in Africa with reference to the tsetse-fly (q.v.).
Out of doors the flies that most commonly come under notice are the daddy-long-legs or crane-fly (Tipula), the wasp-like or bee-like hover-flies (fam. Syrphidae), the horse-flies and their allies (fam. Tabanidae), and various others. Apart from the house-fly proper (Musca domestica), several species are com monly found in houses, e.g., Stomoxys calcitrans, the biting house fly or stable-fly, Pollenia rudis or cluster-fly, blue-bottles or blow flies of the genus Calliphora, Lucilia or green-bottles, Sarcophaga carnaria or flesh-fly, and several others.