Flies are among the most familiar of insects, and yet among the least understood. We talk about 'the fly', as we talk about 'the ant' and 'the frog', and then we have in mind one species, the common house-fly, Musca domestica. ... We notice other flies when they are a nuisance to us. Bluebottles and other blow-flies taint our meat; flies swarm round our heads and those of our grazing animals in summer; some bite, some buzz, some just disgust us with their habit of breeding in dung, sewage, carrion, even in living flesh. In fact, flies are a topic like drains, not to be discussed in polite society, to be left to those strange people who cultivate a professional interest in them. It is a pity.
Harold Oldroyd (1964), The Natural History of Flies
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