18 THE BOOK OF THE FLY 



species of the family of Anthomyidcv are, more or less, 

 feeders on decadent vegetable matter, but some, like 

 those of the genus Fannia, are preferentially feeders 

 on dung. The female of the latrine fly, Fannia scal- 

 arts, so closely resembles the lesser house-fly that only 

 the expert with a magnifying glass, after a careful 

 examination, can tell which is which ; the male differs 

 from the male of the lesser house-fly by being without 

 the yellowish patches on the abdomen. 



There is a larger and less common muscid fly, with 

 an ashy-grey body, but with reddish legs, named by 

 entomologists Muscina stabulans, which not only in 

 body colour, but also in the pestering habit, resembles 

 the house-fly ; its Latin specific name is rather objec- 

 tionable as too suggestive of the common "stable-fly," 

 which name belongs to Stomoxys calcitrans above- 

 mentioned ; its larvae have been found in cow-dung, 

 but they can also flourish on vegetarian fare. 



The common blue -bottle is now named Cal- 

 liphora erythrocephala (red -head), and it can be 

 recognised by its reddish face and black hairs for a 

 beard, whilst the less common blue-bottle, named 

 Calliphora vomitoria, may be said to have a reddish 

 beard upon a black face ; the latter has the blue colour 

 more evenly distributed over the abdomen, whereon 

 the former has dark markings. 



Polietes lardaria is a fly sometimes mistaken for 

 the blue-bottle ; its specific name is rather too sug- 

 gestive of resemblance in habit. It maybe recognised 

 by its having four black stripes on the thorax, by its 

 large white squamae, and its tesselated glaucous abdo- 

 men ; its wing pattern classifies it as belonging to the 





