Fleshflies, family Sarcophagidae, are insects that are often mistaken for common houseflies, although they are somewhat larger in size.

Generally, fleshflies are flies whose larvae are parasitic in meat and carcasses, where they commonly breed. These larvae, commonly known as maggots, live in the meat for about 5-10 days, before descending into the soil and maturing into adulthood. At that stage, they live for 5-7 days, before (presumably) dying.

The family contains two subfamilies, the Miltogramminae and the Sarcophaginae, containing between them about 100 genera. The fleshflies are quite closely related to the family Calliphoridae, which belongs to the same (large) infraorder, the Muscomorpha, and includes species such as the blowfly that have similar habits to the fleshflies.

Fleshflies can carry leprosy bacilli. They can also give intestinal psuedomyiasis to people that eat their larvae. Fleshflies can also give diseases (myiasis) to animals, mostly to sheep. They can give them blood poisoning. It can give them leprosy bacilli too, but it may not hurt them. They can also get sick from eating the larvae.

Fleshfly maggots can eat other larvae although this is usually because the other larvae are smaller and get in the way. They also eat the larvae of grasshoppers. Some grown Macroinvertabrates they eat are beetles, snails, and caterpillars, especially the forest tent caterpillar. That can be useful for biological control.

Some other things fleshflies and their larvae eat are decaying vegetable matter and excrement. A good place to spot them would be around a compost pile.

Flesh Files like to lay their maggots on bodies: human, animal, anything, bloated to decaying. Most like a more advanced state of decay, but some prefer ones that aren't even cold. The Flesh Flies on human bodies are used in police investigations.

Fleshfly larvae lead predictable lives. That helps forensic entomologists tell when the body they are feeding on died. They do that by taking the oldest larvae and count back to get the earliest date possible that they could have been laid. That gives you an approximate date of death (d.o.d.) That is helpful to find who the cadaver is, because the entomologist can see if a person matching the corpse's description was reported missing around the d.o.d.

Certain types of insects like certain types of bodies. Some like more decomposed, or even dry bodies. That helps entomologists, because all the insects lead predictable lives, so they count back with all the different types of bugs average ages and get a d.o.d.