Lucilia Caesar (Linnaeus, 1758) commonly known as “Greenbottle”
10mm to 14mm long.
Flight season: March to November.
Family: Calliphoridae, commonly known as “Blow Flies”
Common and widespread across Europe and in most areas of the world.
Adults are easy to identify by their bright iridescent green colouring, becoming more towards a patchy bronze colour with age.
Habitat : Unlike its close relative the “Bluebottle” the “Greenbottle rarely comes into houses as it favours, flowers, vegetation,. The adults feed on carrion, dung, pollen and nectar on a variety flowers, so a wide range of habitats this species can be found in.
Females lay between 150 to 200 eggs on the parts of carcasses, that are shaded from the sun and if the weather is warm enough the eggs can hatch within 9 hours. In cooler conditions the eggs can take up to three days, before they hatch. A female can lay between 2000 to 3000 eggs within a lifetime. The larvae live in carrion, also in wounds and the anal areas on living animals; rapidly eating away the flesh. This species is a constant worry when rearing domestic and farm animals. Especially a worry on sheep farms, as the female fly can burrow unnoticed to lay her eggs within the woolen mass near the rear of the sheep; where there is the attraction of fecal matter and urine on the wool, which attracts her to lay eggs.
Lucilia Ceasar is hard to separate from the species “Lucilia sericata”. The latter having three cross grooves on the thorax, compared to L. Caesar’s two cross grooves on the thorax; so identification is not easy.