SARCOPHAGID^. 



349 



This family of flesh-flies, as they are often called, 

 though comprising but comparatively few genera, has a 

 great number of species and individuals. For the most 

 part the species are tolerably uniform in coloration, and 

 at first sight seem scarcely distinguishable, having a 

 gray striped thorax and marmorate abdomen. The more 

 metallic colored species of Cynomyia and Onesia are ex- 

 ceptions. The flies are found everywhere, about decay- 

 ing vegetation, especially fruit, excrement, decomposing 

 carcasses, etc. 



The larvae are polyphagous in habit, feeding upon de- 

 caying animal or vegetable matter, or living parasitically 

 in the flesh of different animals, in the nasal cavities of 

 man and other animals, in ulcers, etc. The larvae of 

 Cynomyia live in great numbers in the decomposing car- 

 casses of vertebrate animals. The larvae of Sarcophaga, 

 which are often extruded by the parent fly alive, have 

 been found under the skin of turtles, in the stomachs of 

 frogs; and most of the cases of myiasis that have been 

 reported, other than those due to the larvae of Chrysomyia 

 and Calliphora, have been caused by the maggots of the 

 species of this genus and those of Sarcophila. The larvae 

 of several species have been found in snails, in beetles, 

 grasshoppers, the pupae of moths, etc. 



The Sarcophaga larvae are rounded, thinner anteriorly 

 and amphipneustic. The antennae are short, thick, cy- 

 lindrical, divergent, wart-like tubercles, each with two 

 ocellus-like chitinous rings at the tip. The mouth-hook- 

 lets are distinct, strongly curved, and separated from 

 each other. The abdominal segments are distinctly dif- 

 ferentiated by transverse swellings, and are each pro- 

 vided with a girdle of spines. The hind stigma-plate is 

 situated in a deep cavity, which is formed by the last 

 segment alone. The anal swelling is two-pointed. The 

 puparium is oval. 



