ENY 3005 Family Identification

Diptera: Sarcophagidae

 Common name: flesh flies

Identifying characteristics for the family Sarcophagidae include:

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

Division Schizophora: frontal suture present.
Section Calyptratae: calypters well developed.
• Medium-sized flies with black and gray longitudinal stripes on the thorax and checkering on the abdomen.
• Arista commonly plumose on basal half; bare in a few species.
• Four notopleural bristles (short, long, short, long, from front to rear).
• Hindmost posthumeral bristle located even with or toward midline from presutural bristle.

• Larvae of most species are scavengers like the Calliphoridae; some species are parasitoids of other insects; a few species infest vertebrate tissue.

• Page 307 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.