Scuttle flies (Diptera: Phoridae) are small-sized insects of forensic importance. They are well known for diversified species and habitats, but in the context of forensic entomology, scuttle flies' inhabitance of corpses remains inadequately explored. With recent reports indicating the existence of more scuttle fly species possibly inhabiting these environments, a decomposition study using anim...

What is a scuttle fly? The scuttle fly, Megaselia scalaris, is a Dipteran fly in the family Phoridae named for the short, rapid bursts of running motion characteristic of adults. The species is alternatively referred to as the ‘humpbacked fly’ because of its hump-backed appearance (Figure 1), or the ‘coffin fly’ because of its ability to dig deep into the ground to reach buried carrion and pene...

myiasis is the infestation of organs and tissues of human and animals with fly larvae. this article reports an 18 year-old man with urogenital myiasis, the passing of live megaselia scalaris larvae in the urine, from zanjan city, northwest of iran. we discourse the importance of diagnosis and management of urogenital myiasis in medicine.

Late instar larvae of the scuttle fly, Megaselia scalaris Loew, were found near the right eye of a live captive-reared western hognose snake, Heterodon nasicus Baird and Girard. Dissection and removal of the snake's dorsal cranial bones revealed tissue degradation of the infected eye, the optic nerve, and the brain case; we suggest that these factors contributed to the death of this snake. This...

Megaselia scalaris (Loew) is a cosmopolitan and synanthropic scuttle fly, eclectic in its feeding habits and acts as detritivore, parasite, facultative parasite, and parasitoid. Here we report for the first time M. scalaris infesting laboratory colonies of Triatoma brasiliensis Neiva, the most important Chagas disease vector in semiarid areas of Brazil. M. scalaris larvae were found feeding ins...

The fore tarsus of the male scuttle fly, Aenigmatias lubbockii (Verrall) (Diptera: Phoridae), is broad and equipped with flattened and apically truncated (FAT) setae on the ventral surface, which are suggested to be involved in the intraspecific phoretic behaviour including airlifting and dispersal of the female. The combination of FAT setae on the male fore tarsi and regularly arranged microtr...