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DIPTERA. 71 
The fecundity of this fly is very great, for in the length of a 
quarter of an inch, the envelope in which these small worms are 
enclosed contains 2,000 of them. Therefore this ribbon, being two 
inches and a half long, contains about 20,000 worms. 
The genus Stomoxys, though nearly related to the house-fly, 
differs from it very much in habits. They live on the blood of 
animals. The Stomoxys calcitrans is very common in these cli- 
mates. Its palpi are tawny yellow, antennz black, thorax striped 
with black, abdomen spotted with brown, and its trunk hard, thin, 
and long. It deposits its eggs on the carcasses of large animals. 
The Golden Fly, Lucilia Cesar, lays its eggs on cut-up meat, or 
on dead animals. Itis only three or four lines in length, of a golden 
green, with the palpi ferruginous, antennz brown, and feet black. 
A species of this genus, the Lucilia hominivorax, has lately 
obtained a melancholy notoriety. We are indebted to M. Charles 
Coquerel, surgeon in the French imperial navy, for the most exact 
information concerning this dangerous Dipteron, and the revela- 
tion of the dangers to which man is liable in certain parts of the 
globe. But let us first, 
describe the insect, 
which is very pretty 
and of brilliant colours. 
Fig. 52, taken from 
M. Charles Coquerel’s 
memoir, represents the 
larva and the perfect 
insect, as well as the 
horny mandibles with 
which the larve is pro- 
vided. It is rather more than the third of an inch in length, the head 
is large, downy, and of a golden yellow. The thorax is dark blue 
and very brilliant, with reflections of purple, as is also the abdomen. 
The wings are transparent, and have rather the appearance of being 
smoked ; their margins as well as the feet are black. 
This beautiful insect is an assassin; M. Coquerel has mformed 
us that it sometimes occasions the death of those wretched con- 
victs whom human justice has transported to the distant peniten- 
tiary of Cayenne. 

Fig. 52,—Lucilia hominivorax. 
