Head to head
Common Greenbottle vs Bluebottle
Common Greenbottle
VS Bluebottle
The common greenbottle and the bluebottle are the two blow flies most often seen buzzing around windows and rubbish bins, and both are drawn to carrion.
| Common Greenbottle | Bluebottle | |
|---|---|---|
| Scientific name | Lucilia sericata | Calliphora vomitoria |
| Relationship | A blow fly that lays eggs on carrion | A blow fly that lays eggs on carrion |
| Appearance | A stout, bright metallic green to coppery fly about 10 mm long, with red-brown eyes and black legs | A shiny, metallic blue abdomen and a grey-black thorax, with large red eyes |
| Flight | A fast flyer that finds carrion within minutes of death | A loud, droning flight, and can smell a dead animal from a long way off |
| Maggots | Hatch within a day from eggs laid in carrion and feed on dead flesh | Hatch within about a day and grow quickly before pupating, completing the life cycle in a few weeks |
| Forensics | The age and development of its maggots help to estimate the time since death | The stage and size of its maggots on a body are used to estimate how long ago a person or animal died |
| Medicine and farming | Sterilised maggots are used in medicine to clean wounds, and it can cause flystrike in sheep | Visits flowers for nectar and is a minor pollinator of some plants |
| Conservation status | Not Evaluated, and abundant across much of the world, particularly in temperate regions | Not Evaluated, and a common recycler of dead animals |
Common Greenbottle vs Bluebottle: common questions
Which fly is used in medicine?
The common greenbottle, whose sterilised maggots are used to clean wounds because they eat dead tissue and leave the healthy tissue to heal.
Which fly is louder?
The bluebottle, which has a loud, droning flight.
How do both help forensic scientists?
The age and size of their maggots on a body help forensic scientists to estimate the time since death.