82 I'HOCEKDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QItEENSLAND. 



The larva usually feeds for about five days, then follows 

 a resting period generally occupying from 5 to 6 days during 

 winter and 2 days in summer. The total larval period during 

 midsummer (January to March) is usually 6 days, but 8 days 

 during early summer, and longer during winter. The pupal 

 period is usually from 4|^ to 5 days during the whole summer. 

 No definite information is available as to the time which 

 elapses between adult emergence and sexual maturity, and 

 between emergence and oviposition, but about 5 or 6 days 

 appear to elapse in the latter case (midsummer). Longevity 

 in captivity during summer commonly ranged between 15 and 

 26 days. 



Jarvis (1913, p. 11), who bred it in confinement at an 

 average mean temperature of 75-5° F. (Longreach district, 

 during October), stated that 7 days intervened between egg- 

 laying and pupation — flies emerging 4 days later (i.e., a 

 pupation period of 4 days). Hence the total period between 

 deposition of eggs and the emergence of flies which developed 

 from them was 11 days (Jarvis stated 12 though his date& 

 indicate only 11). 



The most rapid development from egg deposition to 

 emergence noted by us occupied 9 to 10 days (February), 

 3 to 4 daj^s of which were spent in the pupal condition (J. & T. 

 1921, pp. 112, 116). Ilhngworth (1918) referred to a similar 

 rapid development of this fly in Hawaii (midsummer, July), 

 where less than 4 days elapsed from the time of the deposition 

 of the egg to the end of the larval feeding stage. He reported 

 that the pupal condition occupied about 6 days, but this 

 interval would include the time that we have indicated under 

 larval resting stage, which would probably be 1 to 2 days. 

 The total time from egg deposition to emergence was about 

 9| days, just as in the case noted by us. Froggatt (1913, p. 26) 

 stated that less than a fortnight elapsed between these periods 

 (New South Wales). 



Patton (1922c, p. 563) states that the second, but more 

 especially the third, stage larva of C. albiceps is entirely 

 predaceous, feeding on the larvae of other CaUiphorinse, as 

 well as those of certain species of Musca in Mesopotamia and 

 India, a character which it shares with C. villeneuvii. J. L. 

 Froggatt (1919, p. 259) had already mentioned that the " hairy " 

 larvae of Pycnosoma rufifacies and P. ^aripes attacked and 

 devoured the smooth-skinned maggots of other blowflies 



