614 
DIPTERA. 
Fig. 270. 
merited and enraged by them as to become entirely ungov¬ 
ernable in harness. The name of this kind of fly is Stomoxy^ 
calcitrans (Fig. 270); the first word signifying 
sharp-mouthed, and the second kicking, given 
to the fly from the effect it produces on horses. 
It lays its eggs in dung, where its young are 
hatched, and pass through their transformations. 
The larvae and pupae do not differ much m appearance 
from those of common house-flies. 
The next three flies have feathered bristles on their an¬ 
tennae. The first of them, a larse, 
buzzing, and stinking meat-fly, named 
Musca (Calliphora) vomitoria (Fig. 271), 
is of a blue-black color, with a broad, 
dark blue, and hairy hind body. It 
is found all summer about slaucrhter- 
Fig. 271. 
houses, butchers’ stalls, and pantries, which it frequents for 
the purpose of laying its eggs on meat. The eggs are com¬ 
monly called fly-blows; they hatch in two or three hours 
after they are laid, and the maggots produced from them 
come to their growth in three or four days, after which they 
creep away into some dark crevice, or burrow in the ground, 
if they can get at it, turn to egg-shaped pupte, and come 
out as flies, in a few days more; or they remain unchanged 
through the winter, if they have been hatched late in sum¬ 
mer. A smaller fly, of a brilliant blue-green color, with 
black legs, also lays its eggs on meat, but more often on 
dead animals in the fields. It seems hardly to differ fi’om 
the Miisca (^Lucilia) Ccesar of Europe. 
The house-fly of this country has been supposed to be the 
same as the European Musca domestica; but I cannot satisfy 
myself on this point for the want of specimens from Europe. 
It is possible that our sharp-biting stable-flies, the meat-flies, 
and the house-fly, may really be distinct species from those 
which are found in Europe. Our house-fly is the Musca 
Harpyia^ or Harpy-fly, of my Catalogue. It begins to 
