BLOW-FLY, Sareophaga carnaria, an insect of the order diptera (two-winged), (q.v.), and of the large family muscides, of which the common house-fly (q.v.), flesh-fly (q.v.), etc., are familiar examples. The blow-fly is very similar to these in its general appear ance; its body is hairy, the expanse of its wings about one inch, the face silky and yellow, the thorax gray, with three black stripes, the abdomen of a shining blackish brown, which, in certain points of view, assumes a bluish tint, checkered with glittering yellow ish spots. One of the distinguishing characters of the genus Is, that the eyes are widely separate in both sexes. The species of this genus are not unfrequently ovoviviparous, the eggs being hatched within the body of the parent. The generic name (Gr. sari, flesh; phago, to eat) is derived from the circumstance that the larvte of most of the species feed upon the flesh either of dead or of living animals. The blow-fly is com mon in Britain on heaths, in gardens, etc., and its lame are to be found feeding upon meat, the carcasses of animals, sometimes upon living earthworms, and too frequently upon sheep, of which it is one of the most grievous pests, requiring the constant atten tion of the shepherd during most of the summer and autumn. Some districts arc more
infested with it than others; it is particularly troublesome in the fenny districts of Eng land. Unless the maggots are removed, they cat into the skin, the sheep suffer great torment, and soon die. At first they may be removed by shaking them out of the wool, into which dry sand is then abundantly sprinkled; but if they are very numerous, a mercurial ointment or wash of corrosive sublimate is applied; and when the skin is much broken, the wool is clipped away, an ointment of tar and grease is used, and a cloth sewed over the part. Like many other insects, the blow-fly multiplies with excessive rapidity.
Another species of this genus, common in Britain, is S. rnartuorurn, so named from its frequenting burial-vaults and similar places. It is very similar to the blow-tly, but the abdomen is of a shining steel blue, and there is a reddish brown line down the fotv head.