DIPTEKA OK TKUE FLIES. 



227 



The House-ply (Musca dombstica). 



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

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

 to it. The House-fly (M. domestica) belongs to the famUy 

 Musoidse, a family that contains the Blue-bottle Flies {Cal- 

 liphora) and Green-bottles [Lucilia), 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. — HEj\d uf Stomoxys. (Delafond.) 

 '(, Antennee ; j), maxillary palp ; t, proboscis. (From Par. Lis. 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 



^ 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 

 Trypanosoma. 



