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Green Bottle Fly

Lucilia caesar

Description:

These flies are found in most areas of the world, primarily the Western Hemisphere. The maggots of this fly are known to preferentially consume dead tissue while leaving live tissue intact, and so have been sold for use in maggot therapy, primarily during the years before the widespread use of antibiotics and medicines and in modern times due to a resurgence of medical literature documenting their effectiveness. These flies are known to lay eggs in cadaver tissue in the wild within hours after death. The developmental stage of their larvae in the cadaver can be used to accurately predict the time death occurred (Wikipedia, 2014).

Habitat:

This species is found mostly in gardens and urban areas.

Notes:

The adult flies typically feed on pollen and nectar of flowers. The larvae feed mainly on carrion (dead and decaying flesh of animals).

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2 Comments

celestialprincess101
celestialprincess101 10 years ago

No problem. Thanks!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 10 years ago

Hi celestialprincess101. Nice shot. If you want to copy/paste texts from other sources please put it into quotes and add a reference. Thanks.

Trinidad and Tobago

Spotted on Jan 5, 2014
Submitted on Jan 5, 2014

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Common Greenbottle Lucilia sp. Green Bottle Common Greenbottle

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Reference

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