User:Ag2012/luciliacoeruleiviridis

INTRO PP

Taxonomy
It's Latin name L. caeruleiviridis may be a contraction of the words "caerulei" and "viridis". Respectively, these words mean cerulean blue, and greenish referring to the color of the fly's body.

Adult Appearance
Like all Green Bottle Flies in its family, the Lucilia coeruleiviridis adult is a metallic blue-green bodied fly. The facial region is white with large red compound eyes. There are also arista present and plumose in appearance, as well as bristles. The thorax also contains bristles, all of which are evenly paired. Just behind the head, the anterior spiracle is black in color, as is the thoracic posterior spiracle. The meron, just below the wing, is bristled. The veination of the wing is “incomplete” in that it does not reach the wing edge. The basicosta of the wing, or the “shoulder” area, is yellow in coloration, and the calypters—the scale-like structures just below the wing base— are white and of unequal size. The legs of the adult are usually brown to black in color. Like most flies, it also has tarsal pulvilli, or soft pads at the end of each foot used to “stick” to surfaces, that are slightly yellow in color. As with all insects, coloration is very important in identification of a species, as well as the presence of bristles. Sometimes, the presence of a pair of bristles on the thoracic plate is the only way to identify one species from another

Larval Appearance
The white-bodied larvae of L. coeruleiviridis develop in 3 stages, called instars. In each, the larva grows larger and larger, its only function eating until the final growth stage to adult fly. The marked differences between each instar are seen in the spiracles of the maggot, on the posterior end. During the first instar, the larva has “Y-V” shaped spiracles. The second instar can be characterized by the shape of the spiracles increasing in size as well as number in that the “Y-V” orientation becomes 2 distinct slits on each side. Likewise, the third instar larva has 3 larger spiracular slits on each side. It has also been seen that the larval stages of Lucilia coeruleiviridis are very similar to those of Lucilia eximia, though no sufficient data has been collected.

Distribution and Habitat
Lucilia coeruleiviridis has a Nearctic distribution, which means; of, relating to, or being the biogeographic subregion that includes Greenland and North America north of Tropical Mexico and is very ubiquitous in the southern United States. This particular blowfly is probably even the most preponderate of all species of blowflies in the southeastern United States during the spring and fall and will remain active during mild winters.

Life cycle
Typically the blowfly, such as Lucilia coeruleiviridis, will deposit their eggs by way of the female’s abdomen which extends to form an ovipositor, in areas around accessible natural body openings such as eyes, nostrils, ears, mouth, anus and genitals or near wounds. The reason that these maggot mass formations is important is because it can indicate premortem or perimortem trauma. The life cycle of Lucilia coeruleiviridis has four stages of development. Calliphorids are necrophageous so the eggs are dispatched on rotting animal remains and generally hatch after roughly twelve hours. The larvae will then accumulate and nourish on the decomposing carcass. They will then go through three larval stages (instars) which on average will take eleven to twenty days if the ambient temperature is eighty degrees Fahrenheit. In the fourth stage, the larvae leave the food source and will pupate. The pupation stage can last from six to twelve days. A single fly can lay in upwards of two thousand eggs in its life.

Maggot Therapy
It has been found that the maggots of the Green Bottle Fly prefer necrotic tissue, leaving living tissue, so are often used in maggot therapy, or Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT). This therapy is the intentional introduction of disinfected maggots raised to clean out wounds that will not heal, typically larger wounds. However, Lucilia sericata— the common Green Bottle Fly— is the preferred species. The maggots have 3 primary duties: to clean out wounds by eating dead tissues, kill off the bacteria, and encourage health tissue growth.

Forensic Importance
Blow flies are generally the first to arrive on a carcass and Lucilia coeruleiviridis is no exception. Because of this, and as with all flies of the Calliphoridae family, these flies are important for time of death estimations. The larvae are also the most abundant third-instar calliphorid. Unfortunately, not a lot of study has been done on the life cycle of Lucilia coeruleiviridis due to the fact that rearing of larvae has been largely unsuccessful. Therefore, the PMI (post mortem interval) for this species is still unknown, despite being an important PMI indicator species. Some Calliphorids of forensic importance, often associated with L. coeruleiviridis, include Cochliomyia macellaria, Chrysomya rufifacies, Phormia regina, Chrysomya megacephala, and Calliphora vicina. Other important Calliphorids are Calliphora vomitoria, Calliphora livida, Lucilia cuprina ,Lucilia sericata, and Lucilia illustris.

Cultural Importance
There is a fable that says the Lucilia species can predict death and show up before it occurs