INTRODUCTION 
LOWFLIES? are among the most familiar of insects. They 
are the bright bluebottle or greenbottle flies? of our child- 
hood days. Most of us recall instances in which some of these 
two-winged insects figured prominently. Such flies have been 
known to man through the ages,® but in spite of the ubiquity of 
the group, it is only within comparatively recent years that 
fairly complete knowledge of the biologies a a few of the species 
has been gained. 
Blowflies occur in almost every region of thie world. “Many 
species are abundant in the tropics throughout the year; others 
are numerous in the arctic during the short summer season. 
This paper presents a systematic account of the species of 
Calliphoridae* now known to occur in North America®. There 
*The term ‘‘to blow’’ in the sense of depositing eggs is of considerable 
antiquity, and many examples of its use can be found, some dating back into 
the 16th century. For instance: Chapman, 1816, ‘‘Iliads of Homer,’’ 
16 : 23-29, 
“*T much fear, lest with blows of flies, his brass-inflicted wounds are 
fil’d.’’ Or Shakespeare’s, ‘‘to suffer the flesh-fly blow my mouth,’’ 
““«Tempest,’’ Act 3, Se. 1: or, 
‘‘Rather on Nilus mud, 
Lay me stark naked and let the water flies 
Blow me into abhorring’’ 
‘¢ Anthony and Cleopatra,’’ Act BEAD. te 
or again his, ‘‘These summer flies have blowne me full of maggot ostenta- 
t10n, 27-55 Loves Labor Lost,’’ Act 5, Se. 2. Samuel Purchase, in his ‘‘A 
Theater of Politicall fone ee 1657, ‘stated, eC ae asthe pint of the flies 
are nurished by the flesh wherein they are blowne ...;’’ and Wagstaffe, in 
his ‘‘ Vindication of King Charles the Martyr,’’ 1692, said, 
‘«, .. it is the nature of flies to be ever buzzing and blowing upon 
anything that is raw.’’ 
*It has not been possible to trace the derivation of the term ‘‘ bottle fly.’’ 
Melander (in litt.) states that ‘‘bot’’ is an old term for a maggot: hence 
‘“bottle’’ means a little maggot. A bluebottle fly literally is a blue fly 
that produces little maggots. The old Gaelic form is ‘‘boiteag,’’ meaning 
maggot. 
“Something of the habits of these flies was known during ancient times. 
The first published account of such habits appears to be that of Homer in 
his ‘‘Tliad.’’ The actual date of these works has not been established 
definitely, but the first authoritative text is that by Aristarchus of Samo- 
thrace (150 B.C.). While there is no earlier written text, the poems are 
vastly older. In more recent times, Linnaeus (Entomologia Faunae Suecae 
Descriptionibus 3:470, 1789) stated, Tres muscae consumunt cadaver equi 
aeque cito ac leo,’’ indicating that the great number of offspring produced 
by only a few individuals within a short time had been observed by him. 
“Calliphora: from Greek Ka)\)u, a stem used in compounding words to 
denote beauty, and dopa, a bringing forth (from épeuw)- 
"Here considered to comprise the mainland from the arctic to and includ- 
ing the Panama Canal Zone, together with the West Indies north of Jamaica. 
J 
