The Flesh-Fiies 



larvae found feeding upon dead insects in the pitchers of the 

 common pitcher plants and which is often reared from dead in- 

 sects and from excrement. It is rather a rapid breeder and a 



Fig. 92. — Sarcophaga sarracenias. (Author's illustration.) 



generation will be developed in ten days in the summer time. 



Among the commonest of the flesh-flies are the small species 

 of the genus Helicobia, originally so named because they were 

 reared from a dead snail. They are very commonly found feeding 

 in the larval stage upon the dead bodies of insects. 



A majority of the flesh-flies belong to what may be termed 

 the house-fly type, i. e., they are gray flies rather obscurely 

 striped with black, but some of them, as just shown, may be- 

 come metallic in color. 



165 



