364 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



being sucked up. (Plate 40, Fig. 4.) There aro 

 a series of teeth-like spines present in the mouth 

 cavity, by means of which the food can be scraped 

 and torn and reduced to pulp, aided by the saliva 

 of the moutli. 



There are two common blow flies — the brown one 

 (Calliphora villosa) and the blue blow fly 

 (CallipJiora oceaniae). Mr. Froggatt records that 

 these ilies attack the soiled wool of sheep, laying 

 eggs in it, and afterwards the maggots attack the 

 flesli of the sheep. He also records Calliphora riifi- 

 facies, or tlie ^' sheep maggot fly," or ''hairy mag- 

 got," or ''metallic blue blow fly," which is becoming 

 the worst pest to sheep out West. 



The maggot of this species is not smooth, and the 

 pupa retains tlie tubercles or fleshy spines in the 

 puparium. (Plate 44, Figs. 7 and 8.) 



Luc ilia, or the "green bottle fly," is the sheep 

 maggot fly of Great Britain, and it is recorded as 

 attacking sheep in Australia. Lucilia visits many 

 flowers, such as parsley and fennel, of the family 

 UmhclUferae. It feeds on a secretion on the top of 

 the ovary, and in so doing it may cross-pollinate the 

 flowers. 



Another genus is Stomoxys calcitrans, which is 

 not unlike the house fly, but it has a piercing and 

 sucking mouth instead of tlie purely sucking mouth 

 of the house fly. It lays its eggs in stable manure, 

 etc. It is a blood-sucking fly, and may spread dis- 

 ease, such as typhoid, by alighting on food. 



The tsetse fly of South Africa {Glossinia mor- 

 sitans) is a very serious pest. It attacks cattle 



i 



