[This species is known as the screw-worm fly. It attacks animals as well as man, especially laying its eggs on wounds formed by barbed wire. It may also be found on dead flesh. Dr. St. George Gray sent me specimens from St. Lucia, from the nose and mouth of a patient in Victoria Hospital. Others were found in the vagina of another patient. Out of the four patients attacked, two occupied the same bed, one after the other, and a third the next bed to it. The other case was in a more remote part of the hospital. There are numerous records of this fly attacking man. It occurs from the Argentine to Texas.—F. V. T.]
Chrysomyia viridula, Rob. Desv.
[This species is somewhat larger than the former; the body is metallic bluish-green, the dorsum of the thorax with three blackish, longitudinal stripes, and the face ochraceous; about 10 mm. long. Austen records this species from man, Dr. Daniels having bred it from larvæ from a sore on a human being in New Amsterdam, British Guiana. Dr. Laurence also bred it in Trinidad. In the latter case between 100 and 150 maggots were discharged from the nose of a woman suffering from facial myiasis (Brit. Med. Journ., January 9, 1909, p. 88 + fig.).—F. V. T.]
Genus. Lucilia, Rob. Desv.
Lucilia nobilis, Meig.
The larvæ were observed by Meinert in Copenhagen in the auditory meatus of a person who, after taking a bath, fell asleep in the open air, and on waking felt singing in the ears, and had a sensation as if there were water in the auditory canal. During the next days severe pains set in, and there was a discharge of blood and pus from both ears, as well as from the nose. On washing out the meatus the maggots made their appearance.
Lucilia cæsar and L. sericata have also been observed in the larval state in man (Thompson, Hope, Henneberg and Calendoli, Napoli, 1907).
[This golden-green fly usually lays its eggs on decomposing organic matter; now and again it lays its eggs in wounds on man.—F. V. T.]
Genus. Pycnosoma, Brauer and v. Bergenstamm.
The species of this genus have a general resemblance to the Lucilias and Chrysomyias, but the body is stouter and the abdomen banded. The genus can be distinguished from Chrysomyia by the absence of the three thoracic stripes and by the eyes of the male, in which the facets forming the upper portion are much enlarged, whereas in Chrysomyia they are not noticeably larger. Austen also points out that the sterno-pleural bristles in Pycnosoma are 1 : 1, in Chrysomyia 2 : 1. The genus is found in tropical Asia and Africa only. All records of Chrysomyia (Compsomyia) in India must be referred to this genus. Bezzi and Stein (“Katalog der Palăarktischen Dipteren,” 1907, iii, p. 543), however, regard the two as synonymous.