HABITS OF TWO PARASITES OF BLOW-FLIES. 



209 



Ovipositicti. — Females do not begin ovipositing until a day or 

 SO after emergence, and irrespective of whether they have mated 

 or not ; a few have been observed trjang to oviposit before 

 voiding the meconium. 



The ovaries are large and well filled with eggs. A dissection 

 of the ovaries of 12 females gave an average of 366 eggs per 

 female. The greatest number counted in a single female was 416. 

 Graham-Smith (4) records a female Avith ovaries containing 

 " at least 549 eggs." Table II. gives the details of the count of 

 the contents of individual ovaries: — 



Table II. — Contents of Ovaries of 1 2 females. 



Oviposition takes place in the la,rva of the blow- fly (text-fig. 11); 

 half- to full-grown larvfe are usually selected. In the cage the 



Text- fissure 11. 



Female A. manditcator ovipositing in larva of Phormia qroenlandica. 

 Greatly magnified. Original. 



chemotropic efifect of carrion was — when the atmosphere was not 

 charged with the odour — almost instantaneous upon tlie females • 

 they l)ecame violently agitated, swaying their antenna^ and then 

 might proceed to clean themselves, particularly the antennae 

 and the abdomen ventrally in the region of the ovipositor, and fly 

 to the carrion, or reverse the procedure and fly over and around 

 the receptacle containing it and the larvse, and then alio-htino- near 

 by, go through the cleaning process. It is, of course, obvious 



