90 THE BREEDING HABITS OF MUSCA DOMESTICA 



majority of larvae are reared in nature ; manure-heaps in stable 

 yards sometimes swarm with the larvae of M. domestica. It was 

 also found that tho larvae will feed on paper and textile fabrics, 

 such as woollen, cotton garments, and sacking which are folded 

 with excremental products if they are kept moist and at a suit- 

 able temperature. They were also reared on decaying vegetables 

 thrown away as kitchen refuse, and on such fruits as bananas, 

 apricots, cherries, and peaches, which were mixed, when in a rotting 

 condition, with earth to make a more solid mass. Although they 

 can be reared in such food-stuffs as bread soaked in milk and 

 boiled egg, when these are kept at a temperature of about 25° C, 

 I was unable to rear them to maturity in cheese, although they 

 fed on the substances for a few days and then gradually died ; 

 my failure may have been due to the nature of the cheese 

 which was used, only one kind being tried. In addition to 

 rearing the larvae on isolated human faeces, such as are fre- 

 quently found in insanitary courtyards and similar places, they 

 were found in privy middens, and also on a public tip among 

 the warm ashes and clinker where the contents of some privy 

 middens had also evidently been emptied ; L bred the flies out 

 from this material. 



In Canada I have further found that M. domestica can be 

 reared in germinating wheat, no doubt owing to the heat en- 

 gendered by the fermentation which takes place. 



Jepson (1909) reared M. domestica during the winter months 

 on moist bread in which the process of fermentation had begun. 



Nash (1909) records that in 1904 he found the spaces round 

 moveable excreta boxes in privies swarming with fly larvae. He 

 refers to an interesting observation of Austen's, connnunicated 

 by the latter in 1908. Austen found the larvae of M. domestica 

 in rubber which was suspended in a drying-room at a tem- 

 perature of 100^ F. They were apparently full-grown, and the 

 circumstances indicated that they could not have been more 

 than three days in developing from the egg stage, which indi- 

 cated a rapid gi-owth at this exceedingly high temperature. Nash 

 records the breeding of the house-fly in stored house-refuse, and 

 he reared them on bread, pear, potato, banana peelings, boiled 

 rice and old paper. 



