As its common name suggests, it is often found on the feces of large mammals, such as horses, cattle, sheep, deer, and wild boar, where it goes to breed.

[2] The Scathophaga are integral in the animal kingdom due to their role in the natural decomposition of dung in fields.

They are also very important in the scientific world due to their short life cycles and susceptibility to experimental manipulations; thus, they have contributed significant knowledge about animal behavior.

[2] The physical features of separate S. stercoraria populations can vary greatly, due in part to the range of locations in which the species is found.

[5] Reproductive success depends on a variety of factors, including sperm competition, nutrition, and environmental temperature.

[2] Females have paired accessory glands, which supply lubricants to the reproductive system and secrete protein-rich egg shells.

After copulation, females prefer to lay their eggs on the small hills of the dung surface, avoiding depressions and pointed areas.

Larger sperm may be advantageous if they have greater propulsion along the female's spermathecal duct, resulting in higher fertilization success rates.

[3] After growth, larvae spend another five days emptying their stomachs before pupation, where no additional body mass is gained.

To become sexually mature and produce viable eggs or sperm, they must feed on prey to acquire sufficient proteins and lipids.

[2] Females under nutritional stress will have higher rates of egg mortality and less survival of offspring to adult emergence.

[3] Meanwhile, no population decline is seen in colder climates, such as Iceland, Finland, and northern England, and high elevations.

[3] Yellow dung flies have extremely variable phenotypes – body size and development rate in particular.

Different cell lines vary significantly in growth, development, and adult body size in response to food limitation.

[3] Scathophaga stercoraria's phenotype has been shown to vary seasonally, latitudinally, and altitudinally as a result of an adaptive response to time constraints on development due to temperature changes.

In the fall, as the temperature cools, the flies are able to increase development rate, so they can achieve the necessary, albeit smaller than average, size.

[3] Thus, the observed growth plasticity is a result of altering body chemistry and not differing survival rates of offspring from small and large parents.

[3] Plastic development rate and body size are effective at avoiding premature death, meaning S. stercoraria adopts a strategy of being small and alive over large and dead.

[3] Additionally, low genetic differentiation exists between yellow dung fly populations, likely due to extensive gene flow, as S. stercoraria is able to travel great distances.

[3] When species are unable to adapt through genetics, phenotypic plasticity is the most viable option to adjust to changing environments.

Therefore, phenotypic plasticity allows S. stercoraria to adjust development according to unpredictable ecological situations without genetic adaptation.

[3] Since S. stercoraria is a synanthropic fly, it does carry the risk of passively contaminating human food with various pathogens, molds, or yeasts.

[13] Like Drosophila melanogaster, the yellow dung fly is an ideal model organism due to its short lifespan and susceptibility to various experimental manipulations.

In the past 40 years alone, many studies have used S. stercoraria to research topics such as sperm competition, mating behavior, sexual conflict, reproductive physiology, thermal biology, and genetics.

In particular, research on yellow dung flies has contributed greatly to understanding of multiple mating systems and sperm competition.