(3) 



STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT, AND BIONOMICS OF HOUSE-FLY. 397 



most complete of these early accounts is that of Keller 

 (1790) which is illustrated by several striking plates. He 

 gives an interesting account of the development and breed- 

 ing habits, but in attempting to describe the anatomy he was 

 not so successful as exemplified by his mistaking the brown 

 testes for kidneys. .In 1874 Packard wrote what is up to the 

 present time the most complete account of the development 

 of this species, and in 1880 Taschenburg, in his ' Praktische 

 Insektenkunde ' gave a good popular account of the insect. 

 Howard has more recently (1898 and 1902) contributed to 

 our knowledge of the developmental history. 



No complete account of the anatomy of this insect has yet 

 been published. A short popular account by Samuelson and 

 Hicks (1860) though interesting is very superficial, and con- 

 tains much that is inaccurate. Macloskie (1880) has published 

 an account of the proboscis of M. domestic a, and the foot 

 has been made an object of study by several workers, chief 

 of whom are Hepworth (1854), and Merlin (1895 and 1905), 

 who correctly described the glandular hairs of the pulvilli. 

 Wesche has recently (1906) described the genitalia of both 

 sexes, but his description and figures are inaccurate. An 

 interesting account of the copulation of the fly has been pub- 

 lished by Belese (1902), in which he briefly describes the 

 reproductive organs, his work will be referred to later. 

 Lowne's monograph (1895) on the Blow-fly (Calliphora 

 erythrocephala), which is an elaboration of his previous 

 memoir (1870) is the only complete account which has been 

 published on Muscid anatomy. The result of my study of 

 the anatomy of M. domestica, which was begun in 1905, 

 and is being continued in the Zoological Laboratories of the 

 Manchester University, has been to make it apparent that 

 much of Lowne's work needs confirmation. 



Musca domestica was first described by Linnaeus (1758), 

 his description is as follows : 



" Antennis plumatis pilosa nigra, thorace lineis 5 obsoletis 

 abdomine nitidulo tessellato : minor. Habitat in Europae 



