Following successful mating encounters, the adult females are then attracted to decaying material rather quickly for oviposition,[5] allowing forensic entomologists to use development stages of larvae as a clue in determining an approximate time of death.

[4] Combined with their importance in forensic entomology, these flies have been relatively well studied, particularly for variables affecting their development.

[1] Phormia regina adults are metallic blue or green in color and have a distinctive set of orange setae near the anterior thoracic spiracle.

[2] They are also recognizable by their black gena (the side of the head below eye level), mostly white calypteres, and the distinctive bend in their wings.

Researchers have observed these flies on a wide variety of animal excrement, but at least in the northwestern United States, they exhibit a preference for human, mink, and swine feces.

[6] P. regina is predominantly found in the northern United States during spring and summer months, but in the winter they are localized to more southern regions.

[8] The life cycle and development of Phormia regina is similar to that of most other Dipteran species, in which females oviposit their eggs onto a nutrient substrate.

Then, after hatching, the larvae feed throughout three instar stages until they have stored up enough calories to commence pupation and finally emerge as adult blow flies.

Each transition from first, second, and third instar is marked by a molt, and eventually the third-instar larvae develop sclerotized (hardened) casings which envelop and protect them throughout metamorphosis.

[4] Relatively few studies have been conducted on the adults of this species in comparison to those on larval development, mostly due to the importance of blow fly larvae in determining the post mortem interval (PMI) of corpses during investigations by forensic entomologists.

For this reason, many researchers have conducted experiments to investigate the effect of various environmental factors on the duration time of larval development in this species (as well as many others).

Researchers have discovered that at 40 to 45 °C, larval development occurs normally until the prepupal stage, at which point a majority of the larvae die.

The highest rate of development (with survival into adulthood) was seen at a constant temperature of 35 °C, where the average time of adult emergence was 265 hours (about 11 days).

Protein is not generally necessary for spermatogenesis in male flies, but it is paramount for accessory reproductive gland development, higher rates of copulation, and the capability of impregnating females.

[12] Adult black blow flies aggregate on feces, particularly animal dung pats, not only because they act as a food source, but also in order to mate.

Some research has suggested a preference for settling on human, swine, and mink feces, but this may be localized to the northwestern region of the United States.

[15] Male black blow flies have an external phallus that is a tube-like structure with unique flaps centrally located.

From the cornua a narrower tube structure, the acrophallus, extends with a terminal fluted opening, referred to as the gonophore, from which sperm and accessory secretions flood.

The wing-like flap structures on the male's phallus are situated in grooves within the bursa copulatrix of the female's reproductive system.

Research suggests adult female P. regina will increase their ovipositing in the presence of a medium that provides odor stimuli to the fly.

They suggest these findings may be especially important to forensic entomology with respect to determining if a recovered body has moved locations by comparing AFLP data across individual P.

[21] P. regina larvae have been shown to be an important organism in myiasis of both humans and animals, particularly in the southern region of the United States.

[23] This aspect of forensic science stresses using arthropod evidence in solving crimes, often of a violent nature, through two ideal approaches to estimate post mortem interval (PMI).

PMI relies on an entomologist's ability to correlate the species or stage of development of arthropods, in this case P. regina, to an approximation of the elapsed period between a person's death and the discovery of his/her body.

[24] P. regina adults and larvae are attracted to the body because, during decomposition, the remains go through rapid physical, biological, and chemical changes.

Confirming the preference for daytime or nighttime oviposition in P. regina could aid in increasing the accuracy of PMI determination, and the disagreement necessitates more experimentation to investigate this environmental effect.