614 DIPTERA. 



merited and enraged by them as to become entirely ungov- 

 ernable in harness. The name of this kind of fly is Stomoxyt 

 calcitrans (Fig. 270) ; the first word signifying 

 sharp-mouthed, and the second kicking, given 

 to the fly from the effect it produces on horses. 

 It lays its eggs in dung, where its young are 

 hatched, and pass through their transformations. 

 The larvaB and pupae do not differ much in appearance 

 from those of common house-flies. 



The next three flies have feathered bristles on their an- 

 Fj 2n tennae. The first of them, a large, 



buzzing, and stinking meat-fly, named 

 Musca (Calliphora) vomitoria (Fig. 271), 

 is of a blue-black color, with a broad, 

 dark blue, and hairy hind body. It 

 is found all summer about slaughter- 

 houses, butchers' stalls, and pantries, which it frequents for 

 the purpose of laying its eggs on meat. The eggs are com- 

 monly called fly-blows ; they hatch in two or three hours 

 after they are laid, and the maggots produced from them 

 come to their growth in three or four days, after which they 

 creep away into some dark crevice, or burrow in the ground, 

 if they can get at it, turn to egg-shaped pupae, and come 

 out as flies, in a few days more ; or they remain unchanged 

 through the winter, if they have been hatched late in sum- 

 mer. A smaller fly, of a brilliant blue-green color, with 

 black legs, also lays its eggs on meat, but more often on 

 dead animals in the fields. It seems hardly to differ from 

 the Musca (JLucilia) Ccesar of Europe. 



The house-fly of this country has been supposed to be the 

 same as the European Musca domestica; but I cannot satisfy 

 myself on this point for the want of specimens from Europe. 

 It is possible that our sharp-biting stable-flies, the meat-flies, 

 and the house-fly, may really be distinct species from those 

 which are found in Europe. Our house-fly is the Musca 

 Harpyia, or Harpy-fly, of my Catalogue. It begins to 



