GREEN BOTTLE FLY

The 'green bottle fly' (''Lucilia sericata'') is a common blowfly found in most areas of the world. It is 10-14 mm long, slightly larger than a housefly, and has brilliant, metallic, blue-green or golden colouration with black markings. It has black bristle-like hair and three cross-grooves on the thorax. The wings are clear with light brown veins, and the legs and antennae are black. The larvae of the fly are also used for maggot therapy.

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Life cycle

External links

Life cycle

A mass of up to 20 eggs are laid in wounds, carcasses, or necrotic tissue. Pale yellow or grayish-white larvae 10-14 mm long hatch in half a day to three days, and begin feeding on the decomposing animal matter they were hatched in. They are fully grown in two to ten days, when they will seek soil in which they will burrow to pupate. The adults then emerge to mate, beginning the cycle again. During cold weather, pupae and adults can hibernate until warmer temperatures revive them.
They are pollinators of some flowers with a strong odor such as pawpaws and goldenrod.

External links

★ [1] Closeup photographs of ''Lucilia sericata''

★ Maggot Therapy Project web site at the University of California, Irvine, list of maggot therapy practitioners

★ Green Bottle Maggots help cure MRSA patients

★ Monaghan, Peter ''Rx:Maggots, Notes from Academe'', The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 1, 2007 (Vol. LIII, No. 39), p. A48.