DIPTERA OF MINNESOTA. 1,41 



SARCOPHAGIDAE, 

 The Flesh-Flies. 



As tlieir English name intimates, these flies, for the most part, 

 seek flesh, not only for food, but also to deposit their eggs, thereon. 



Fig. 134. A Sarcophagid. Lugger. 



and carcasses of dead animals attract them in large numbers, as well 

 as the blow fly, which latter species belongs to the family Muscidce. 

 Some species of Sarcophagids seek dung or rotting vegetable mat- 

 ter or fruit for feeding and oviposition. The larvae of some attack 

 the nasal cavities or ulcers on man and other animals. It is claimed 

 that 20,000 eggs have been found in the ovaries of one Sarcophagid. 



Some species of the genus Sarcophaga give birth to living larvae 

 and, according to VVilliston and other writers, have been found 

 under the skin of turtles, in the stomach of frogs, etc. Still other 

 species of this genus destroy locusts, attack the army worm, etc. The 

 larvae of several species are known to occur in snails, in beetles, in 

 pupae of moths, etc. 



Aldrich lists about 118 species as North American (1904), and 

 of these 102 belong to the genus Sarcophaga. The habits of some of 

 these latter are interesting. S. assidua, Walker, has been reared from 

 human excrement, also bred from a destructive "grasshopper" or 



