The meaning of the hairs on the body of a fly.

When a fly lands on food, the very first and most important contact is on its legs, which have small hairs and sensors (these are taste buds through which it knows whether the food is edible).

Flies wipe their paws from various dirt in order to cleanse the sensory abilities of the hairs. To give an example based on tasters, they will rinse their mouths with water between tastings to cleanse the taste of previous food or drinks before trying the next glass so they can better appreciate the taste of the new food. The same for flies, they need to regularly clean their hairs of dirt and dust. All of these bristles that cover the fly’s body are sensory, and keep their sensors and eyes clean. Wing preservation is important for obvious reasons: it is much more difficult to fly when the fly’s wings are covered in mud or bits of corpses.

Some types of flies

Nematocera (crane flies, mosquitoes).
Tabanomorph (horse flies).
Muscomorpha (robbers).
Syrphoidea (hoverflies).

Flies have been used in art and artifacts in many cultures. In the 16th and 17th centuries, European Vanit paintings, flies sometimes occur as Memento mori. They can also be used for other effects, as in Flemish painting by the master of Frankfurt (1496). Fly amulets were popular in ancient Egypt.