Credit: CLOUDS HILL IMAGING LTD/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Caption: Blue bottle flies feeding on the remains of a cooked fish meal. Flies go through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The eggs are laid near a food source, such as fresh or rotting meat. The larvae (known as maggots) hatch from the eggs and feed on the meat. The larvae can go through several additional stages (instars) before pupating to produce the adult winged form to complete the life cycle.

Release details: Model release not required. Property release not required.

Keywords: animal, arthropod, biological, biology, blow fly, blue bottle, bluebottle, calliphora vomitoria, calliphoridae, clip, cooked meat, decay, decaying, decomposing, decomposition, diptera, eating, entomological, entomology, fauna, feeding, film, fish, fly, footage, insect, invertebrate, meal, meat, motion, nature, no-one, nobody, video, wildlife, zoological, zoology