BIOLOGY PROJECT :-

STUDY OF DEVLOPMENTAL
STAGES OF
HOUSEFLY/COCKROACH
“STUDY OF DEVLOPMENTAL STAGES OF HOUSEFLY AND
COCKROACH ”
A project report submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the award of marks in
BIOLOGY PROJECT
Submitted By
ZOHAAN ZUBER ALI
Standard - XII (Science)
Roll No:

Under the guidance of

Miss. Nisha Bihare

BISHOP COTTON SCHOOL CBSE & SR.SECONDARY

SESSION 2024-25
 Bishop Cotton School CBSE & Sr. Secondary
Certificate
This is to certify that ZOHAAN ZUBER ALI student of class XII
(Science) has successfully prepared the report on the project entitled
"STUDY OF DEVLOPMENTAL STAGES OF HOUSEFLY AND
COCKROACH “ under the
guidance of Miss. Nisha Bihare

The report is the result of her efforts &

endeavours. The report is found worthy of acceptance as final
Project report for the subject Biology of class XII(Science).

Name&Sign. of Internal Examiner Name&sign of Ext. Examiner

Ms. Sonia Singh

(Principal)
 Declaration

I hereby certify that the investigatory project

work entitled “STUDY OF DEVLOPMENTAL STAGES OF
HOUSEFLY AND COCKROACH”submitted to Department
of Biology, Bishop Cotton School CBSE & Sr.
Secondary is preparedby me.
 Acknowledgement

I would like to express a deep sense of thanks

and gratitude my project guide Miss. Nisha Bihare
ma'am for guiding me immensely throughout the
course of the project. Her constructive advice &
constant motivation have been responsible for the
successful completion of this project.

My sincere thank goes to our principal mam for

her co-ordination in extending every possible
support for completion of this project.

I would like to thank all those who had

helped directly or indirectly towards the completion
of this project.

ZOHAAN ALI
Standard XII (Science)
S.No. Title PageNo

1 Introduction 4

2 Cool facts 6

3 Classification 7

4 Experiment 7

Developmental stages of 8

Housefly

Developmental stage of
6 .15
Cockroach

7 Relationship with Humans 19

8 Importance In Ecosystem 20

9 Conclusion 21

10 Bibliography 22
INTRODUCTION:-
Insects constitute the largest classof animals representing over 75ooo species. They are the most
successful and invertebrates and the only major
competitors with humans for dominance in the world. Today, the life of every
human being is affected by insects in one way or the other. Quit several insect
varieties are closely connected with some of our diseases like malaria, cholera,
plague, etc. and without day today life. Housefly and Cockroach .
Houseflies have been pursuing mankind throughout all recorded
history, and probably from the time man emerged from his caves and began to
walk erect Houseflies are cosmopolitan in distribution and are intimately
associated with human life. Hence, they are found in all places of human dwelling.
They remain active in all seasons except winters.
Cockroaches are also cosmopolitan in distribution and are found in such
places of human dwellings, where darkness, warmth, dampness, and plenty of
organic debris are available. Thus, one can easily find these hidden in our kitchens,
sewers, go downs, railway compartments, ship, etc.

Cockroaches are nocturnal and omnivorous. They come out of their

hiding places during the night insearch of food.Cockroaches harm us by chewing
our clothes, books, and leatherwares when normal foodin scanty.

HOUSEFLY [musca domestica] COCKROACH [periplanta Americana]

Housefly:

 They can taste with their feet.

 They can see behind them.
  Life cycle of a housefly only lasts for
Around 3 days.
 They process around 250 in a single
second

Cockroaches:
 A cockroach can live for a week without ts
head!
 Cockroaches can hold their breath for up
 To 4ominutes.
 Cockroaches can survive a nuclear
 explosion.
Classification Cockroach housefly
Kingdom Animalia Animalia

Phylum Arthropod Arthropod

class Insects Insects

Subclass Pterygota Pterygota

Super order Dictyptera Panorpida

Order Blattaria Diptera

Genus Periplanta Musca

Housefly

Experiment
 Aim:-
Keeping in view the huge impact that these insects have on lives of
humans, the study of the developmental stages of the insects Housefly and
Cockroach have been selected for this project.

Materials Required : Preserved specimens of different

developmental stages of housefly/cockroach, notebook, pen, etc.

Experimental Procedure: Get the preserved specimen of different developmental

stages of housefly/cockroach and observe the stages carefully.

Observation :
A. Developmental Stages of Housefly

J The house fly has a complete metamorphosis with distinct egg, larval or
maggot,pupal and adult
)stages. The house fly over winters in either the larval
)or pupal stage under manure piles or in other protected locations. Warm summer
conditions are generallyoptimum for the development of the
housefly,anditcancompleteitslife cycleinaslittleasseven
)to ten days.However,under sub optimal conditions the
)life cycle may require up to two months.
 long.ucinoInbs

Anterio 0como‹oy
rspiracl spini*erouspacs
e .'

AdultHousefly :-
Housefly has grey body of about 6- 7mm long.

The body is divided into head,thorax and abdomen :-

i. Head:- Head is ovoid with two large, lateral compound

eyes.Ommatidia is the unit of compound eye.In the center of
head three ocelli or simple eyes are present. In front of the
 head are two small, sensitive antennae.
ii. The proboscis (mouth)ismadeupof
threeparts
(1)Rostrum (2)Raustellum 3)Oral disc(sucker)

For feeding,the raustellum forms food channel. This pierces into the food and sucks it
into the alimentary canal.

iii. Thorax:- It is divided into three parts:

(i) Prothorax

(2)Mesothorax
( 3):- Metathorax

The whiteegg ,about 1.2mm in length,is laid singly but eggs are piled
in small groups.Eachfemale
fly can lay up to 5oo eggs in several batches of 75 to 150 eggs over a three to
four-day period.The numberof eggs produced is a function of female size which,
itself, isprincipally aresult of larval nutrition. Maximum egg production occurs at
intermediate temperatures,25 to
3O°C.Often ,several flies willdeposit theireggsin
proximity,leading to large masses of larvae and pupae. Eggs must remain moist
or theywill not hatch.
 Larva:-
Early instar larvae are3to 9 mm long, typical creamy whitish in colour,
cylindrical but tapering toward the head. The head contains one pair of dark
hooks.The posteriorspiraclesare slightly raised and
the spiracular openings are sinuous slits which are surroundedby
anovalblackborder.Thelegless maggot emerges from the egg in warm weather within eight to
zohours. Maggots immediatelybegin feedingonanddeveloping inthe material inwhich
theeggwas laid.

Pupa:-

The pupal stage, about 8 mm long, is passed in a pupal case formed from the last larval
skin which varies in colour fromyellow,red,brown,toblack as the pupa ages. The shape of
the pupa is quite different from the larva, being bluntly rounded at both ends. Pupae
complete their development in two to six days at 32 to 37°C,but require17 tO 27days at
about 14°C.

Adult or Imago:-
The house fly is 6 to 7m long, with the female usually larger than the male.
The female can be distinguished from the male by the relatively wide space
between the eyes(in males,the eyes almost touch). The head of the adult fly has
reddish-eyes and sponging mouthparts. The thorax bears four narrow black
stripes and there is a sharp upward bend in the fourth longitudinal wing vein.
The abdomen is grey or yellowish with dark mid line and irregular dark markings
on the sides. The underside of the male is yellowish.

B :- DEVLOPMENTAL STAGES OF
COACKROACH
 The cockroach has three life stages the egg, a variable number of
nymph instars, and the adult. The life cycle from egg to adult
averages about 6oo days and the adult life span may be
another 4oodays. The nymphs emerge from the egg case
after about six to eight weeks and mature in about six to
twelve months.

AdultCockroach:-
Cockroach is a brown,elongated,dorsoventrally flat creature of
about4omm long and 10-12 mm broad. The body is covered by sclerites
(plates) made up of chitin.The body is divided in to head,thorax and abdomen.

i. Head:- The head is triangular,hanging downwards.A pair of long sensitive

antenna isseen infront oftwo lateral compound eyes. The mouth parts
include labrum, mandibles, maxillae, and hypopharynx.These help the
cockroach in eating varied type of things.

ii. Thorax:- It is divided into parathorax, mesothorax and metathorax, each

bearing a pair of legs. Like housefly here also the legs are made up of five
joints, pulvinus and claws. Meso and metathorax bear a pair of wings each.

iii. Abdomen : It contains ten segments gradually narrowing down. The

sclerites on dorsal side are called tergum and on ventral side sternum.
t
Sternum are only nine. In females7 and 9'hsternum make brood pouh.

Females of the American cockroach lay their eggs in hardened,purse-shaped egg case
called anootheca.About one week after mating the female produces an ootheca and at
the peak of her reproductive period,she may form two ootheca per week. The
 females on average produce one egg case a month for ten months, laying i6 eggs
per egg case. The female deposits the ootheca near a source of food, sometimes
gluing ìt toa surface with a secretion from her mouth.

Nymph:-
The nymph stage begins when the egg hatches and ends with the emergence of
the adult.The number of times an American cockroach molts varies from six to
14. The first instar American cockroach is white immediately after hatching then
becomes a grayish brown.After molting,subsequent instars of the Cockroach
nymphs are white and then turn reddish brown,with the posterİor. Margins of
thoracic and Abdominal segments being a darker colour.
Relationship with
Humans:-
HOUSEFLY :-
Flies are a nuisance, disturbing people at leisure and at work,but they are disliked
principally because of their habits of contaminating foodstuffs. They alternate between
breeding and feeding in dirty places with feeding on human foods, during which
process they soften the food with saliva and deposit their faeces ,creating a health
hazard. However, fly larvae are as nutritious as fishmeal, and could be used to convert
waste to feed for fish and livestock. The pesky house fly may be annoying, but this
buzzing insect's genome could improve human health, according to a new
study.Although we often think of houseflies as just a nuisance, they can transmit many
pathogenic bacteria to people and contribute significantly to disease in poor
communities where sanitation is limited.

Importance in Ecosystem:-
Besides being a food source for other living creatures, roaches have a more significant role to
serve in the ecosystem. Forest roaches are expert in consuming leaf litter and other
plant materials.The microbes in their bellies help them break down the degrading plant
material which is indigestible for other creatures. Cockroaches are a major source of
nitrogen which is vital for the growth of trees and essential for the habitat. Roaches feed upon
decaying organic matter,leaf litter and wood around it.

Conclusion:-
The Housefly is an object of biological research, partly forits variable sex
determination mechanism. Although a wide variety of sex determination mechanism
exists in nature (e.g. Male and Female heterogamy, haplodiploidy, environmental factors),
the way sex is determined is usually fixed within a species. The housefly is, however,
thought to exhibit multiple mechanisms for sex determination, such as male
heterogamy(like most insects and mammals), female heterogamy (like birds), and maternal
control over offspring sex. The exact mechanism of sex determination involved is
unresolved.
The cockroach is one of the most primitive insects on Earth.According to the
Cockroach Control Manual, their ancestors lived 250-350million years ago in the
Carboniferous Period, even before the dinosaurs. The Carboniferous Period was also
called the Age of the cockroaches because they were so abundant.