Lucilia. 141 



hlackish brown hairs. Frontal bristles reaching to insertion of antennæ, 

 in male being small iipwards and stopping before vertex, in female 

 stronger with the uppermost directed outwards. Cheeks bare. Vi- 

 brissal ridges only a little converging, with fine vibrissæ up to the 

 middle. Eyes with the facets a little enlarged on upper front part 

 in male, and towards the inner angle in female. Epistoma not re- 

 treating and only slightly reflected downwards. Oral cone and pro- 

 boscis of medium length; clypeus somewhat horse-shoe-shaped. 

 Palpi a little dilated outwards. Antennæ inserted at the middle of 

 the eye, third joint three to about four times as long as second; 

 arista long-plumose. Thorax nearly quadratic; three postsutural 

 dorsocentrals and two præ- and two or three postsutural acrostichals. 

 A præsutural intraalar bristle present. Scutellum with four marginal 

 bristles on each side, and sometimes a weaker fifth ; two discai bristles. 

 Three sternopleural bristles in position 2 — 1; above on pteropleura 

 a dense bundle of more or less bristly hairs. Propleura hairy. At the 

 base of the postalar declivity, between it and the thoracic squamula 

 there is a narrow, chitinised part with long bristles, and this is char- 

 acteristic of the genus (Shannon: Insec. Insc. Menstruus, XII, 1924). 

 Abdomen short ovate; excavation on second segment reaching 

 margin or nearly. Only marginal bristles, on third segment none or 

 a pair or more, on fourth segment a row. Fifth sternite in male excised 

 to near base. Genitalia rather small, bent in under venter; upper 

 forceps cleft to middle or only at apex; arms of lower forceps as 

 long as upper forceps. Legs with not strong bristles, hind tibiæ with 

 a regular anterodorsal row of short bristles and some a little longer. 

 Wings with first posterior cell open, ending a little before apex of 

 wing; discai angle nearly rectangular; cubital vein with bristles 

 half way to medial cross-vein or a little longer. No costal spine; the 

 subcostal sclerite, i. e. the tongue-shaped sclerite on underside at 

 base of wing below costa is either bare or with bristles (Shannon 

 I. c). Squamulæ not hairy. 



The species are oviparous. The larvæ generally live in decaying 

 animal matter, carrion and the like; some, as sericata and caesar 

 have been a serious plague to the sheep-flocks, especially in Scot- 

 land and Holland but also in Austraha (Froggatt: Dep. of Agric. New 

 South Wales, Farmer's Bull. 95, 1915). The eggs are deposited on 

 the dirty whool, but the irritating of the larvæ causes the sheep to 

 scratch, and then the larvæ (sheep-maggots) live in the wounds 

 and go deeper in, and in this condition the sheep are still more 



