A close-up of the head of a blow-fly. The name blow-fly comes from an older English term for meat that had eggs laid on it, which was said to be fly blown. The first association of the term “blow” with flies was used by William Shakespeare in his plays Love's Labour's Lost, The Tempest, and Antony and Cleopatra. Blow-flies are usually the first insects to come in contact with carrion because they have the ability to detect death from up to ten miles (16 km) away.Photo credit: Richard Bartz