BRITISH BLOWFLIES (CALLIPHORIDAE) AND WOODLOUSE FLIES (RHINOPHORIDAE)

Draft key to British Calliphoridae and Rhinophoridae Steven Falk 2016
Calliphora vicina male (left) and female (right) showing the brownish basicosta
Habitat & biology Found in many settings but abundance greatest in urban, pastoral
and rabbit-occupied settings. The larvae develop in fresh carrion of many sorts, from
bird nestlings to large mammals. Myiasis has been recorded in assorted mammals
(including humans), also birds and reptiles and it is an occasional sheep-strike species.
It will also exploit meat, meat and dairy-based products and garbage. It is the main
blowfly responsible for fly-blown food. Adults visit many sorts of flowers, including
spring-blossoming shrubs, umbellifers and Ivy; also Stinkhorn fungus and faeces.
Status & distribution Widespread and common over most of the British Isles
extending north to Shetland. Our commonest bluebottle, though sometimes
outnumbered by C. vomitoria, and occasionally other species in wooded, upland and
northern areas.
Calliphora vomitoria (Linnaeus, 1758)
Orange-bearded Bluebottle
Description & similar species WL 7-11mm. Readily distinguished from all other
Calliphora species by the orange-haired genae. The ground colour of the genae, face
and interfrontalia is usually dark. In the field it tends to look darker than C. vicina and
the tergites produce deeper blue reflection, often with a hint of turquoise. Males have
the eyes separated by about 0.75 times the width of a third antennal segment, with the
interfrontalia narrower than the parafrontalia.
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