ENY 3005 Family Identification

Diptera: Calliphoridae

 Common name: blow flies

Identifying characteristics for the family Calliphoridae include:

• Suborder Cyclorrhapha: antennae 3-segmented, aristate; vein Rs 2-branched.

Division Schizophora: frontal suture present.
Section Calyptratae: calypters well developed.
• Body metallic blue, green, or black.
• Arista plumose for entire length.
• Two notopleural bristles.
• Hindmost posthumeral bristle located lateral to presutural bristle.

• Larvae of most species are scavengers of carrion and dung and most likely constitute the majority of the maggots found in such material.
• A few species infest living tissue. The screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax, once a major pest in the South, has been eradicated through massive release of sterilized males.
• Adults may vector pathogens of diseases such as dysentery.

• Page 306 and plate 14 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Page 351 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Page 569 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 513-521 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

Links to other web sites

• Chrysomya rufifacies (Macquart), hairy maggot blow fly
• Cochliomyia macellaria (Fabricius), secondary screwworm
• Maggot therapy - a site dedicated to the use of blowfly maggots in curing gangrenous wounds