Chrysomyia macellaria 
141 
but is especially abundant in the south. While the larvas b ] n 
decaying matter in general, they so commonly breed in the living 
flesh of animals that they merit rank as true parasites. The females 
are attracted to open wounds of all kinds on cattle and other animals 
and quickly deposit large numbers of eggs. Animals which have 
been recently castrated, dehorned, or branded, injured by barbed 
wire, or even by the attacks of ticks are promptly attacked in the 
regions where the fly abounds. Even the navel of young calves or 
discharges from the vulva of cows may attract the insect. 
Not infrequently the fly attacks man, being attracted by an of¬ 
fensive breath, a chronic catarrh, or a purulent discharge from the 
ears. Most common are the cases where the eggs are deposited in 
104. Calliphora erythrocephala, (x6). After Graham-Smith. 
the nostrils. The larvae, which are hatched in a day or two, are 
provided with strong spines and proceed to bore into the tissues 
of the nose, even down into or through the bone, into the frontal 
sinus, the pharynx, larynx, and neighboring parts. 
Osborn (1896) quotes a number of detailed accounts of the attacks 
of the Chrysomyia on man. A vivid picture of the symptomology 
of rhinal myasis caused by the larvae of this fly is given by Castellani 
and Chalmers: “Some couple of days after a person suffering from 
a chronic catarrh, foul breath, or ozacna, has slept in the open or has 
been attacked by a fly when riding or driving, — i.e., when the hands 
are engaged — signs of severe catarrh appear, accompanied with 
inordinate sneezing and severe pain over the root of the nose or the 
frontal bone. Quickly the nose becomes swollen, and later the face 
also may swell, while examination of the nose may show the presence 
