Taxonomy
Kingdom:	Phylum:	Class:	Order:	Family:	Genus:	Species:
Animalia	Arthropoda	Insecta	Diptera	Calliphoridae	Cynomya	C.mortuorum

The fly belongs to the family of Calliphoridae that is commonly known as blow flies, blow-flies, carrion flies, bluebottles, greenbottles, or cluster flies. It can be mostly found in colder regions of Europe and Asia and it is less common in Northern America. Its habitat are flowery meadows and woodland edges.

Cynomya mortuorum has no specific name in English language but it is sometimes referred to as "fly of the dead" ('Totenfliege' in German). It lays its eggs on carrion and the larvae feed on decaying flesh. Since it appears on corpses Cynomya mortuorum is subject to forensic investigations called 'forensic entomology'. The stage of development of the fly is a quite accurate indication helping to estimate a time of death for the body the fly is found on.



Reaching the body length of 8-15mm it is a relatively large fly. The full development cycle is 38 days that includes three stages: an egg stage, three larval instars, and a pupal form before becoming an adult, or imago.