NEW AND LITTLE-KNOWN SARCO- 

 PHAGID FLIES FROM SOUTH- 

 EASTERN QUEENSLAND. 



By Professor T. Harvey Johnston, M.A., D.Sc, and 0. W. 

 TiEGS, M.Sc, Walter and Eliza Hall Fellow in Economic 

 Biology, University, Brisbane. 



(Twenty-six Figures.) 

 {Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, 27th June, 1921.) 



The sheep maggot-fly problem in Eastern Australia has 

 led to a considerable amount of attention being paid to certain 

 blowflies, especially in New South Wales where Mr. W. W. 

 Froggatt has been investigating them. However, apart from 

 some references to a few species, e.g. Sarcophaga aurifrons, very 

 little notice has been taken of the Sarcophagidae for many 

 years past. In fact there is not an adequate account of even 

 one of the flesh flies as yet recorded from the CommonAvealth. 

 Only two species from Australia have been figured, viz., *S^. 

 aurifrons by Froggatt and S. pachytili by OlHff. The family 

 has, then, been almost entirely neglected, this inattention to 

 such a common group of large blowflies being no doubt due to 

 the difficulty experienced by collectors and workers in differ- 

 entiating the various forms. Commonly Sarcophagid specific 

 characters are far from being obvious, and as a rule it is neces- 

 sary to study the male copulatory organs in order to differen- 

 tiate between species which otherwise are very similar. It is 

 extremely difficult to allot female specimens to their species 

 as they much more closely resemble one another than do 

 the males of different species. In order to obtain the two 

 sexes we have bred out specimens from larvae deposited by 

 captured gravid females. As regards certain of those dealt 

 with by us we have examined only males which were captured, 

 and in such cases the female is still unknown. 



The senior author, while on a recent visit to U.S.A. and 

 England, took the opportunity to submit some Queensland 

 Sarcophagids to Dr. J. M. Aldrich, of the National Museum, 

 Washington D.C., and Major E. Austen, D.S.O., of the British 

 Museum. To those two authorities on Diptera we are indebted. 



