ROOT MAGGOT FLY ANTIIOMYIA RAJjK'CM 213 



source of food, such as the carcass of an animal, even though 

 freshly killed. They have been found in abundance feeding on 

 the pus of blood from the sores on the head of a sheep. As .soon 

 as. one ventures outside, if the weather is warm, this species 

 attaches itself to one's person. In some country situations that 

 part of one's clothing sheltered from the wind may be covered 

 with a dense mass of these insects. They are especially annoying 

 by hovering around and finding their way into one's eyes, nose 

 and mouth." 



It is very common in the neighbourhood of Sydney, N.S.W., 

 and in all the country districts in New South Wales. It is also 

 common in Melbourne, around Adelaide, and occurs in Perth, 

 West Australia. 



The abundance of this fly and its habit of hovering round and 

 alighting on the face of human beings makes it probable, as 

 Cleland suggests, that if such eye diseases as epidemic con- 

 junctivitis and trachoma are transmitted by flies, this species 

 would be incriminated. It will readily eat dried blood. Cleland 

 states that smears of anthrax blood were made on glass slides, 

 and after several days were confined with one of these flies in a 

 test tube. Some of the blood was eaten and anthrax bacilli were 

 cultivated from the resulting faeces, and the fly itself, on being 

 emulsified in saline solution and injected into a guinea pig, gave 

 the animal anthrax. 



The Root Maggot Fly. Axthomyia radicum 

 Meigen (fig. 92). 



This member of the Anthomyidae has been found in houses, 

 especially those in or near the country. It is not, however, a 

 house-fly in the same sense as its congeners, F. canicidaris and 

 F. scakms, and while its habits lead it in search of excrement it 

 is not likely to be a serious factor as a vector of pathogenic 

 organisms. It may occasionally be responsible for intestinal 

 myiasis and a case recorded by Austen (1912) is referred to 

 later. 



In size and general appearance this species resembles Fannia. 

 The female, which is shown in fig. 92, is olive grey in colour and 



