ZOOLOGICAL POSITION 
border it, while in the female of the house fly this 
dark stripe almost touches the eyes. Autumnalis, like 
its near relative, is almost cosmopolitan, but appears 
to have been rarely met with in this country/’ 
Possibly a simpler way of putting it would be as 
follows: 
Mnsca domestica has four black lines on the back 
of its thorax. All Sarcophagidse have three such black 
lines. Most Tachinidse have four such black lines, 
but the Tachinidze have the bristle of the antennae 
smooth, whereas in Musca domestica this bristle is 
feathered. From all Anthomyidae, Musca domestica 
is at once separated by the bent vein near the tip of 
the wing. Moreover, Musca domestica has no bristles 
on the abdomen except at the tip which separates it 
from all others except some Tachinids and many An- 
thomyids, but from these it is separated by the char¬ 
acters given above. 
Musca domestica is not alone in its genus. There 
are fifteen species of the genus Musca according to 
Bezzi and Stein in their Catalogue of the Palearctic 
Diptera. In North America there are thirteen species 
of Musca, according to Aldrich. Of none of these 
other species of Musca do the habits appear to be 
known. There is, however, an Indian species, Musca 
cntccniata, which breeds in the same fecal masses with 
the typhoid fly. 
