58 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: BULLETIN 356 



"blue bottle" although it has more bright greenish tints than any 

 other tint. Like the house fly, it is rather closely associated with 

 the habitations of man. These bright-colored flies are often very 

 noticeable in cities, feasting upon garbage, decaying vegetable or 

 animal matter. They may also come into the house and blow ex- 

 posed meat. 



The fly is of moderate size and is of a rich metallic green color 

 with bronzy tints on the abdomen. It differs from other species of 

 the genus Lucilia in having the center of the dorsal surface of the 

 meso-thorax furnished with three pairs of stout bristles, and 

 bristles on the third abdominal segment rather small and hidden by 

 long silken hairs. The front of the thorax behind the head is 

 covered with a fine whitish bloom. These flies are distinguished 

 from the common blow flies Calliphora by their smaller size, rich 

 metallic tints and whitish bloom on the thorax behind the head. 

 The space in front of the head, which in the typical blow fly is 

 covered with fine hairs, is bare. 



The female fly, attracted by foul smelling wool, deposits its 

 eggs in clusters of a few dozen to one hundred or more. The eggs, 

 stuck together with a secretion that adheres to the wool, are pale 

 yellow and about one-sixteenth of an inch long. The life history of 

 this species has been carefully observed from the stage when the 

 eggs were found upon the wool to that of the adult fly. Eggs laid 

 sometime between 10 A. M. and 3 P. M. on September 21, 1916, 

 were collected and placed in vials. The eggs in the different vials 

 hatched in 9, 17 and 24 hours. Those hatching first were kept at a 

 warmer temperature (26 degrees) C. Of three vials kept at the 

 same temperature, the eggs in one hatched in 17 hours and those of 

 the remaining two began hatching in 24 hours. 



The maggots were fed upon meat and in 6 days were mature 

 and ready to pupate; in 7 days after pupation the perfect fly 

 emerged (temperature ranging from 22 to 30 degrees C). The fly 

 thus averages a life cycle of about 14 days in warm weather. 



The maggot (larva) is smooth and cylindrical, tapering toward 

 the head end, becoming thicker toward the anal end. The head is 

 provided with a pair of black, sickle-shaped hooks with which the 

 maggot digs into the flesh. Some of the rear segments are fur- 

 nished on the underside with rows of very fine spines which aid the 

 larva in moving. It moves along rapidly in its food material, in the 

 wool, or on the ground. When mature the larva generally drops to 

 the ground and contracts into a form somewhat the shape of a bar- 

 rel, called the pupa. The skin of the larva becomes the pupa-case, 



