FAMILY MUSCID^. 181 



Muscidae. 



The character of the mouth and its organs restricts and defines this natural family : it is 

 formed by a distinct proboscis, which is thick and membranous, retractile, and terminated 

 by lateral lobes ; and it encloses two setiform organs and a pair of palpi. The antennse 

 have but three joints, the third of which is the largest, and is prolonged into a seta or 

 long slender bristle, sometimes articulated with its base. The nervures of the wings are 

 few, and extend to the margin. 



^ The true flies feed upon both vegetable and animal substances. The common housefly is 

 typical of the family, and its habits in some respects are very well known. They are all 

 small : their larvae are white, soft, and without feet, and are usually called maggots. 

 Meigen, it is said, has described 1700 European species ; from which we may infer that it 

 is a large family. 



Sarcophaga georgina. 

 Color grayish, hairy ; eyes copper-colored ; face silvery white ; thorax striped with gray 

 and black ; abdomen lustrous, and checked with white and black ; legs black. It is 

 common during most of the summer. Length about half an inch. 



MuscA vomitoriaI 

 Body thick, steel-blue, especially the abdomen, hairy and mixed with bristles : antennae 

 pilose ; thorax bluish black ; legs black. Length about half an inch. 



Genus LEPTIDA. 



Leptis . ( Plate xxix, fig. 1.) 



Eyes brownish : antennae four-jointed, small, porrect, approximate, standing a little below 

 the crown, the last setiform pubescent ; thorax semiglobose, striped, hairy ; wings 

 diverging ; anal areolet open ; abdomen with seven rings, tapering, and marked with 

 clay-colored rings, somewhat silvery. Metallic points are scattered upon the sides of 

 the thorax. 



Leptis? . ( Plate xxix, fig. 4.) 



The eyes are brown, and larger than in the foregoing species : rings of the abdomen 

 seven : top of the thorax less prominent. 



Leptis . (Plate xxix, fig. 10.) 



Color brown : thorax bordered with an ochreous line ; abdomen tapering and pointed, the 

 three last rings being attenuate, and all of them bordered with yellowish. 



