All species of resplendent flies,
Some with green bodies and green eyes,
Pricking like pins’ heads from their holes
Like tiny incandescent coals.
(Anon.)
Fig. 26.—Green-bottle, Lucilia caesar, male (× 3). Antenna. Female head, dorsal view. Natural size, resting position. (From Graham-Smith.)
One of these, Lucilia caesar, is a marked nuisance to those responsible for victualling a camp. This green-bottle fly, like the Calliphora and the house-fly, belongs to the family Muscidae, and its larvae are said to be indistinguishable from those of blue-bottles. Some species of Lucilia deposit their eggs in great quantities amongst the wool of sheep when the sheep are ill-kept, and they do much damage. But as far as war is concerned the harm that Lucilia does is laying its eggs upon dead animals. It does this on all sorts of meat-stores; but in times of peace it especially infests stale fish, which the issuing larva very soon eat clean to the bone. When feeding upon a dead fish lying upon a beach they burrow down in the sand below their food. They descend some two to six inches, and for the most part remain deep in the sand during the daytime, coming up to feed at night. They also have a habit of migrating from one fish to another. This fly has also been known to lay its eggs in the neglected wounds of human beings.
Fig. 27.—Flesh-fly (Sarcophaga carnaria), female (× 3). Antenna. Natural size, resting position. (From Graham-Smith.)