Widespread across the Palaearctic and Nearctic, especially in cooler temperate regions.
Fine-art photographic collection
Calliphora vomitoria
A blow fly whose flexible wings improve lift while its wandering larvae complicate forensic searches.
About this species
Calliphora vomitoria(Linnaeus, 1758)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Calliphora vomitoria is a powerful temperate blow fly studied both as an aerodynamic system and as a forensic indicator. The adult’s deformable wings and the larva’s post-feeding migrations each solve very different physical problems.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Diptera · Calliphoridae · Calliphora
Accepted species. The common-name field is left blank because “bluebottle” is applied to several Calliphora species. · checked 2026-07-15
Northern temperate regionsBroad documented range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Woodland, rural and upland habitats, often associated with carrion.
Adults are mainly active in the warmer months but tolerate cool climates.
Larvae develop chiefly in carrion; adults feed on liquids and may visit flowers.
Solitary, with larvae aggregating on food resources.
What makes this species remarkable?
Computer models based on real wings show that flexibility improves lift-to-drag and lift-to-power performance while reducing peak rotational forces.
After feeding, larvae leave the food source and can travel considerable distances before burrowing to pupate, so the oldest evidence may lie metres away.
Its larvae can enter a partially freeze-tolerant state, surviving cold in a fundamentally different way from the freeze-avoiding Calliphora vicina.