Common Green Bottle Fly or Sheep Blow Fly Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Insecta: Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Abstract

The common green bottle fly is a common visitor to carrion, feces, and garbage. Like many of the other blow flies, it plays an important role in forensic, medical, and veterinary science. Larvae or maggots help forensic scientists to determine the period of insect colonization as it relates to the time of death, aiding law enforcement in their investigations. Medical treatment using maggot therapy can help to heal infections that are otherwise incurable. Learn more in this 4-page fact sheet written by Matthew Anderson and Phillip E. Kaufman and published by the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, October 2011. Reviewed September 2014. EENY-502/IN903: Common Green Bottle Fly or Sheep Blow Fly Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Insecta: Diptera: Calliphoridae) (ufl.edu)