It’s always a challenge to determine a topic for the final Angelkeep Journals column of any given year. Repeating 2023’s Angelkeep Top Five became in impossibility in 2024. The last Angelkeep column being published on Boxing Day nearly won, but it’s British. Google it.
Wrapping up 2024 proved a tough assignment. Condensing a year’s activity of this columnist’s book “Edward Bruce Williamson—Bluffton History” would get overwhelming. E.B. was a lover of flora and fauna, specifically irises and dragonflies. A copy from the final armload of the Limited Edition can yet be picked up at the News-Banner office. Will trade for Christmas cash.
Life happened. Significantly. Angelkeep’s year was touched long distance by friends and family involved in hurricanes, disease, employment misadventure, medical emergencies, divorce (marriages too,) and even deaths. Too often in 2024, life lost the election.
So it was that 2024’s finale Angelkeep Journals column came to be Chrysomya megacephala.
Also known as latrine fly.
Waiting days at Angelkeep for reconnected communication from loved ones in the midst of hurricanes was like finishing in an outhouse but finding no paper, no catalogue, and having to wait for rescue.
Latrine flies have bright red eyes and a greenish-blue body that looks Christmas green in certain lighting, as photographed at Angelkeep. Red and green remain appropriate for Boxing Day. It’s similar to a house fly, but smaller by half.
Latrine flies often become the first insect occupying any animal corpse. They detect a corpse ten miles away. That makes them important to forensic science.
Latrine flies breed in excrement. ‘Nough said. Google it.
Chrysomya megacephala was found to be Angelkeep-significant due to common habitat distribution. While common in the Orient and Australia, it expanded in the 1970s to Africa, plus South, Central and North America. Wiki survived the 2024 hurricanes. It claimed latrine flies to be common in California, Texas, Louisiana, and Hawaii.
Guess what.
You could add Indiana. Angelkeep hosted at least one latrine fly in 2024.
Are you excited, less excited, against, or undecided, about Angelkeep’s latrine fly? Are you most likely to contribute funds, for or against, the latrine fly?
The latrine fly is synanthrope. Angelkeep Googled it. That means it benefits from humans’ environment modifications. Global Warming? Synathrope includes species regarded as pests or weeds. Never a domesticated animal. Examples include, but not limited to, ants, bedbugs, cockroaches, coyotes, brown rats, and Virginia opossums.
Indiana ‘possums failed to make the list. The Virginia variety is also called American, so guess what? Angelkeep had a ‘possum killed on the road a few feet from the mailbox. It was likely hit while playing ‘possum. Nobody claimed synathrope animals to be highly intelligent.
Synanthropic plants include dandelion and plantain, outstanding varieties in Angelkeep’s lawn.
Adult latrine flies live but a week. Females lay up to 300 eggs, typically in human feces or fish. Are you more likely, less likely, or undecided, to now give New Year’s sushi a skip?
Angelkeep wishes all a Happy Boxing Day, celebrated today, as well as a coming Happy New Year. Angelkeep prays all will experience bliss and God’s grace in 2025. And zero hurricanes.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
