THE LIFE HISTORIES OF MUSCA AUSTRALIS 
MACQ.. AND M. VETUSTISSIMA WALKER. 
By Proressor T. H. Jounston, M.A., D.Sc., and M. J. 
Bancrort, B.Sc., Walter and Eliza Hall Fellow 
in Economic Biology, University, Brisbane. 
(26 Text-figures). 
For some time past we have been engaged in the 
study of Australian diptera as transmiiters of certain 
nematode parasites of stock. This has involved the 
dissection of large numbers of adults, pupae, and larvae 
of various species, and has necessitated a study of the life 
history of the commoner forms in the district (Eidsvold, 
Upper Burnett River, Queensland) where the work has 
been carried out. 
On account of the inadequacy of the available 
descriptions of the two * bush flies ’’ especially dealt with 
in this paper, we have deemed it advisable to supplement 
them and to add figures of the two sexes of each species. 
In regard to these two species of flies, J/usca australis 
Macq. and M. vetustissima Walker, we may state that in 
the Upper Burnett district they are both abundant during 
the summer, but during the winter the latter is rarely 
seen, while the former remains fairly common except 
during midwinter, when it becomes scarce. Neither of 
them occurs indoors unless attracted by the presence of 
dead animal matter, etc., e.g., in the laboratory. 
Certain other flies found in the district may be 
referred to. Many of the local Tabanids have been worked 
out by E. E. Austen, of the British Museum, and by 
F. H. Taylor, late of the Australian Institute of Tropical 
Medicine. Both of these dipterologists have kindly 
identified some of the flies referred to in this list. Musca 
