DIPTERA. “1 
The fecundity of this fly is very great, for in the length of a 
quarter of an inch, the envelope in which these small worms are 
enclosed contains 2,000 of them. Therefore this ribbon, being 
two inches and a half iong, contains about 20,000 worms. 
The members of the genus Stomoxys, though nearly related to 
the house-fly, differ from it very much in habits. They live on 
the blood of animals. The Stomoxys calcitrans is very common 
in these climates. Its palpi are tawny yellow, antennz black, 
thorax striped with black, abdomen spotted with brown, and its 
trunk hard, thin, and long. It deposits its eges on the carcasses 
of large animals. 
The Golden Fly, Lucilia Cesar, lays its eggs on cut-up meat, or 
on dead animals. It is only three or four lines in length, of a golden 
green, with the palpi ferruginous, antennee brown, and feet black. 
A species of this genus, the Lusilia hominivorax, has lately 
obtained a melancholy notoriety. We are indebted to M. Charles 
Coquerel, surgeon in the French imperial navy, for the most exact 
information concerning this dangerous Dipteron, and the revela- 
tion of the dangers to which man is liable in certain parts of the 
globe. But let us first 
describe the insect, 
which is very pretty 
and of brilliant colours. 
Fig. 52, taken from 
M. Charles Coquerel’s 
memoir, represents the 
larva and the perfect 
insect, as well as the 
horny mandibles with 
which the larva is pro- 
vided. It is rather more than the third of an inch in length, the 
head is large, downy, and of a golden yellow. ‘The thorax is dark 
blue and very brilliant, with reflections of purple, as is also the 
abdomen. The wings are transparent, and have rather the appear- 
ance of being smoked ; their margins as well as the feet are black. 
This beautiful insect is an assassin: M. Coquerel has informed 
us that it sometimes occasions the death of those wretched convicts 
whom human justice has transported to the distant penitentiary 
of Cayenne. 

Fig. 52.—Lucilia hominivorax. 
