Blow Fly -  Green Bottle Fly - Phaenicia sericata
Order Diptera / Suborder Brachycera / Infraorder Muscomorpha / Family Calliphoridae -- blow flies, bluebottles, cluster flies, greenbottles
Subfamily Calliphorinae / Tribe Luciliini / Genus Phaenicia / Species Phaenicia sericata (Meigen, 1826)
Synonyms: Lucilia barberi / Lucilia giraulti / Lucilia sayi / Musca sericata

The blow flies, (family Calliphoridae) especially the bluebottle and greenbottle, lay their eggs almost exclusively in dead or rotting flesh. They are usually the first insects attracted to a fresh carcass, sometimes within minutes of death; they are attracted by the organic odors of  decomposition The eggs are most often laid around natural body orifices or open wounds, and the larvae molt and pupate at predictable rates for any given temperature and humidity condition; it is for these reasons the blowflies are so important in forensic patholgy. Maggots (larvae) and pupariums (the hollow cases left behind after the adult fly emerges) collected from a body can be used to determine, sometimes very accurately, the time of death.

Green Bottle Fly
Photo: www.forestryimages.org

 
 

  
              
 
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