£54 M U 
Various are the means uferl to get rid of tliefe trouble- 
fome guetls, who not only pefter us with their numbers, 
but contaminate our furniture : the moft fuccefsful anti¬ 
dote is arfenic diflolved in water, with the addition of a 
little fugar; this they readily fip, and it quickly proves 
fatal. The compofition has been held, and is (till held, as 
a fecret by fome ; but, where there are children orfervants, 
it will perhaps be better to bear the annoyance of the flies, 
than run the rifque of poifoning fome part of the family. 
Monthly, Mag. Dec. 1814. 
We lhall now proceed to enumerate the moft remark¬ 
able fpecies of this extenfive genus. 
I. With twojhort feelers; and the antenna feathered. 
1. Mufca meridiana: hairy, black, front golden, wings 
ferruginous at the bafe. This is an European infeft, and 
found in our own country. It has been deferibed and 
figured by Harris in the work already referred to. There 
is a variety that has a faint rufous fpot at the bafe on 
each fide of the abdomen. 
2. Mufca carnaria: hairy, black; thorax with paler 
lines; abdomen Ihining, and tefiellate. It is found in 
almoft all parts of Europe, in putrid carcafes and meat. 
The Mufca carnaria, or common large blow-fly, as 
every one knows, depofits its eggs on animal fleflr, either 
frefh or putrid. The larva;, or maggots, hatch in a few 
hours, and, when full grown, which happens in eight or 
ten days, are of a white or yellowifli-wliite colour, with a 
flight tinge of pale-red, and of a lengthened fliape, with a 
fharpened front, in which the mouth is fituated ; and from 
this the body gradually enlarges in fize to the laft feg- 
ment, which is of a very broad and flattened form! fur- 
rounded by feveral flightly-prominent tips, and furniflied 
with a pair of fuecks refembling eyes; fo that an inaccu¬ 
rate fpeftator might eafily miftake this part for the head, 
and the proper head for the tail. When the animal 
changes to a chryfalis, the (kin, dries round it, and the 
whole affumes an oval form, and a reddifh colour, foon 
changing into a reddifh-brown. In ten days more the fly 
itfelf emerges, which is too well known to require par¬ 
ticular defeription. 
To this infeft has been applied the obfervation, Tres 
tnyfere confumunt cadaver equi aque cito ac leo ; “ Three 
flies will deftroy the carcafe of a horfe as quick as a lion.” 
Signifying that the number of larvae proceeding from the 
flies, and the quick evolution of the fuccefiive broods, 
deftroy the fame quantity of flefn in a given time as the 
predacious quadruped who devours a great quantity at 
certain intervals only. The blow-fly is thown, in two 
different politions, on the preceding Plate, at fig. 3,4. 
3. Mufca vomitoria, the blue-bottle : thorax black, 
abdomen Ihining blue, front fulvous. This well-known 
infeft: is reprefented at fig. 5. 
h. Antennse naked, or merely a briftle. 
4. Mufca fera: black; lides of the,abdomen teftaceous 
and diaphanous. This is an European infeft. The front 
and mouth are of a buff colour; thorax gioffy black, 
hairy; abdomen orange-brown, with a broad unequal 
black ftripe down the middle, the tail hairy; wings hya¬ 
line ; the rib at the bafe golden yellow; the legs black, 
the ends yellow. 
5. Mufcalurida: hairy; thorax brown ; abdomen black, 
the fides at the bafe and legs teftaceous. This refembles 
M. fera, and is found in Germany. The antennse are fer¬ 
ruginous with a black club ; mouth whitifli; thorax hairy, 
brown with a yellovvilh lcutel; abdomen black, the bale 
pellucid, teftaceous at the fides, which are joined by two 
black ftreaks. 
6. Mufca groffa: hairy, black, wings ferruginous at the 
bafe. It is found in many parts of Europe, arid in this 
country ; it feeds on horfe-dung. This is the largeft of 
European flies : it is much larger than the largeft blow-fly, 
and is of a dark colour, with the wings dull orange-co- 
lburtd at their bafe. In its general appearance it refem- 
S C A. 
bles the M. meridiana, which is fimilar in colours, but 
ftands among the flies with plumed antennse. 
7. Mufca hyftrix: very hairy, and black with a whitifli 
mouth. Inhabits America. 
_8. Mufca tremula: hairy, gioffy, and black ; bafe of the 
wings and fcale of the poifers ferruginous. Inhabits 
Europe. This is lefs, and of a more oblong (hape, than 
the M. fera. . , 
9. Mufca rotundata : thorax black, with large ferrugi¬ 
nous fpots; abdomen ferruginous, with a black line, which 
in one lex is compofed of dots. Inabits Europe. Wings 
hyaline, with a pale gold bale. 
10. Mufca larvarum: blackifli; fcutel teftaceous at the 
tip ; abdomen tefiellate, whitifh. This is found in Eng¬ 
land ; it depofits its eggs in the larvae of moths and but¬ 
terflies ; the larva devours the garden-cabbage, making 
the root ftrumous, and the head lax. 
11. Mufca braflicaria: thorax greenifli; abdomen cylin¬ 
drical and black; the fecond and third fegments rufous. 
It inhabits Europe, and is found at the roots of cabbages. 
The head is rufous ; the wings brownifli hyaline. 
12. Mufca napobraflicse : hairy, grey with longitudinal 
black lines down the back and fides. This is found in 
different parts of Sweden, and is extremely deftruftive to 
the roots of turnips, efpecially of thole growing in fandy 
foils ; its larva is white, and without feed; the head is 
pointed, and tipt with black ; undergoes its transforma¬ 
tion about the month of September; the pupa is brown, 
oblong, annulate with fegments, and becomes a perfeft 
fly in tlie following May. 
13. Mufca pluvialis : cinereous; thorax with five black 
fpots ; abdomen with obfolete fpots. It inhabits Europe, 
and appears in vaft fwarms before rain. 
14. Mu lea fubfultans: black, with hayaline wings ; hind 
thighs formed for (kipping. Inhabits Europe; is very 
linall, and flies by a fort of (kipping motion. 
15. .Mufca labiata: hairy, blackifli, with a Ihining fil-' 
very lip ; wings white, immaculate. Found in Germany, 
and in its (kipping motion refembles the M. fubfultans 
juft noticed. The legs are black ; the fcale of the poifers 
arched and fnowy. 
16. Mufca meteorica: black; abdomen pale grey; win^s 
yellowifti at the bafe. This is found in our own country; 
and, like the M. pluvialis, comes in fwarms before (bowers 
of rain. 
17. Mufca frit: black; poifers, end of the hind legs, 
and abdomen, of a pale green. It inhabits Europe; and is 
not larger than a flea. The larva is found in the ears of 
barley and other grain, to which it is fo exceedingly de¬ 
ftruftive, that in one year corn to a vaft amount has been 
deftroyed by its ravages: in Sweden it is faid one-tenth 
pf the corn is annually deftroyed by this infeft. 
18. Mufca pumilionis : black, beneath yellow; head 
and two lines on tine thorax yellow; poifers white; ler-s 
cinereous, tipt with black. The larva of this fly has^a 
(harp head, black at the extremity .; the body is white, 
and compoled of ten fegments; it is changed into the 
pupa form about the end of May. The pupa is yellow, 
ihining, and compofed of fegments; the perfeft infeft 
appears about the month of June; but it is not known 
at what time it depofits its eggs. The larvae are perceived 
early in the fpring, in the centre of the folks of wheat 
and rye, very near the root. It has been thought that 
the eggs are depoiited in September or Cfetober, becaufe 
the eariieft-fown grain is moft affefted by them. White 
wheat is more liable to the depredations of this inleft 
than red. The (talks in which the larva is lodged do not 
advance ingrowth, but continue in a dwarf ftate; and 
hene'e the inleft itfelf has obtained its fpecific name. The 
(talks become yellow, early in the fummer, and foon after 
die away: but others ufually fpring up on the fame root, 
and fupply their place. This infeft firit attrafted notice 
in our own country in 1791, -when it excited aconfiderable 
degree of alarm, left it lhould prove as mifehievous as the 
v Heffian 
