414 Phylum Arthropoda 



around 95 ° F. The eggs are removed from the meat and placed on 

 small squares of wet black cloth and incubated in the laboratory. The 

 incubation period ranges from 9.2 hours at 99 to 25.2 hours at 74 F. 



Stock cultures are reared on rabbits. From 30 to 40 larvae will mature 

 and drop normally from a 5-pound rabbit. The rabbit, however, usually 

 dies a day or two after the larvae have dropped. Since partly developed 

 larvae will continue their development in the carcass, especially if the 

 carcass is kept at a fairly high temperature, say 90 F. or above, 700 to 

 800 normal sized adults may be reared on a 5-pound rabbit. To implant 

 the newly hatched larvae, a fold of skin on the rump of the rabbit is 

 pulled up and a plug about 1 inch in diameter is cut out with a pair of 

 scissors, care being taken not to cut the blood vessels. The larvae are 

 placed in the wound and covered with a small piece of moist cotton 

 which is held in place with adhesive tape. The rabbits are placed in 

 cages 20 inches long and 4% inches wide. The sides and ends are made 

 of 1" x 8" boards, the bottom is %-inch-mesh hardware cloth, and the 

 top consists of a 1" x 3" board hinged to one end. The width of the cage 

 is very important and should be such that the rabbit cannot get its head 

 to the wound to destroy the larvae. 



The cages are placed over shallow trays of sand from which the larvae 

 are removed and placed in jars partly filled with half-saturated sand, 

 where pupation and emergence take place. As they emerge, the adults are 

 liberated in the cage described above under care of adults. 



Cochliomyia macellaria is very easy to rear in captivity. The adults 

 are caged and fed in the same manner as that described for Cochliomyia 

 americana. Eggs are obtained by placing strips of lean beef in a saucer 

 in the cage with gravid females. 



The larvae are reared as follows: Into a No. 2 galvanized tub contain- 

 ing 1 inch of dry sand is placed a 6-quart enameled pan half filled with 

 rather moist sand. Three pounds of lean beef are placed on the moist 

 sand and 4,000 to 5,000 eggs are added. The tub is covered with sheet- 

 ing to prevent contamination. The mature larvae migrate from the wet 

 sand in the pan and are trapped in the dry sand in the tub, where pupation 

 occurs. The pupae are buried in quarter-saturated sand in a i-gallon 

 bucket. At time of emergence the bucket is placed in a breeding cage. 



THE CULTURE OF BLOWFLIES 



Dwight Elmer Mlnnich, University of Minnesota 



VARIOUS species of blowflies have long been favorite forms for a 

 wide variety of experimental problems. Methods of culture, how- 

 ever, have not always been satisfactory, and, while much remains to be 

 done in this field, it is the purpose of this paper to describe such of our 



