There Is So Much You Donât Know About Being a Fly Where once flies might have represented tedium or torment, Jonathan Balcombe unveils an existence that is not necessarily simpler for merely being smaller.Credit...Jorge GarcÃa/VW Pics Universal Images Group via Getty Images Buy Book â¾ By Rebecca Giggs SUPER FLY By Jonathan Balcombe To the thinkers of antiquity, a flyâs life had cryptic origins. With scant knowledge of how flies metamorphize from larvae into adults, some classical philosophers reasoned that the insects emerged through âspontaneous generationâ out of fires, rotted meat, mucilage and other organic refuse; life springing forth from nonliving matter.