DIPTEKA OK TRUE FLIES. 



227 



The House-flt (Musoa domestica). 



Although the House-fly is not an agricultural pest, yet 

 it is sufficiently obnoxious to allow a few lines to be devoted 

 to it. The House-fly {M. domestica) belongs to the family 

 Muscidae, a family that contaios the Blue-bottle Flies {Gal- 

 liphord) and Green-bottles (Lmcilia), as well as the dreaded 

 Tsetse-fly of Africa.^ 



This household pest is found in all parts of the world 

 near habitations. The adult house-fly is ashy-grey, more or less 

 ochreous at the sides in the male, ashy-grey in the female ; 



Fig. 115. — Head op Stoimxeys. (Delafond.) 

 a, Antennae ; j), maxillary palp ; t, prolioseis. (From Par. Dis. Ani., Fleming.) 



head black between the dull-reddish eyes, which are sur- 

 rounded by a shiny white circle, and the face is the same 

 colour ; the grey thorax has four black lines upon it, and 

 the legs are rather slender and black. The life-history of 



1 The Tsetse-fly only acts as a distributer of the Tsetse disease, which 

 is caused by a protozoon in the blood, belonging to the flagellate genus 

 Tryparwioma. 



