Abstract
AFTER Mr. McLachlan's remarks in NATURE for November 20 (p. 54), on Dr. Bonavia's note upon the above subject, it is hardly necessary to say that your correspondent, F. N. Pierce (November 27, p. 82) is undoubtedly mistaken in saying that he has bred the house-fly, Musca domestica, from Lepidopterous larvae. If he has really bred Musca domestica, it is a new fact, and I should be very glad to see a specimen. I have had some considerable experience in breeding Lepidoptera, and have frequently bred out Dipterous parasites; these have invariably been Tachinids, mostly of the genus Exorista. To the ordinary observer they very closely resemble Mttsca domestica, but the same observer would very probably call all the various species of Musca, Anthomyia, Homalomyia, Stomoxys, &c., which frequently occur in houses, “house-flies.” The general appearance of many of these genera is very much the same, and the term “house-fly” is such a vague one that I remember a good microseopist once showed me a slide labelled “upper and lower wing of house-fly”! some Hymenopteron caught on a window apparently furnishing the materials.
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