JOURNAL 



OF 



ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 



Vol. 8 JUNE, 1915 No. 3 



Proceedings of the Twenty-seventh Annual Meeting of the 

 American Association of Economic Entomologists 



{Papers Read by Title, Continued) 



FLIES WHICH CAUSE MYIASIS IN MAN AND ANIMALS— SOME 

 ASPECTS OF THE PROBLEM 



By F. C. BisHOPP, Bureau of Entomology ^ 



Some Forms of Myiasis and Species of Flies Concerned 



For many years medical literatm^e has contained reports on cases 

 of myiasis of different kinds in man. It is impossible to say how long 

 man and animals have been subject to the attack of fly larvae. It is 

 safe to conclude that the meat breeding habits of certain Sarcophagidse 

 and Muscidse have existed for many centuries, and although the habit 

 of attacking living animals may have been developed later, there is in 

 many cases no material difference between the infesting of dead and 

 decaying tissue in a living animal and the infestation of carcasses. 

 From this point it is but a short step to the development of the habit 

 of feeding on healthy as well as dead and diseased tissue, and ultimately 

 we find the forms which freely attack uninjured tissue requiring nothing 

 but an external drop of blood to attract the fly and induce deposition. 

 In the CEstridae, or bot fly family, we find a more intimate and complete 

 relationship to or dependency upon the host. The form of myiasis 

 produced by this group of flies is quite different, of course, from that 

 exhibited by the Sarcophagids and Muscids.^ The flies are more 

 specialized in habit and structure for parasitic life. This degree of 



^ Published by permission of the Chief of the Bureau of Entoraology. 



2 Cordylobia, an African genus which has been considered to be a Calliphorine, 

 has a habit somewhat similar to the bots. The larvae of this group cause dermal 

 myiasis in man and lower animals. In Africa we also find the Calliphorine flies 

 of the genera Auchmeromyia and Chaeromyia, the larvae of which have the peculiar 

 habit of sucking blood from man and the lower animals. 



