Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Calliphora

Fly ZH3Z8830 - Calliphora vomitoria - female Blue Fly w/ Red Eyes - Calliphora vicina Fly - Calliphora Fly - Calliphora vomitoria - male Calliphora livida - male Calliphorid - Calliphora vicina - male Calliphora vicina dark blue blow fly - Calliphora vicina - male
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Calyptratae)
Superfamily Oestroidea
Family Calliphoridae (Blow Flies)
Subfamily Calliphorinae
Genus Calliphora
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
revised in(1)
Explanation of Names
Calliphora Robineau-Desvoidy 1830
'bearer of beauty'
Numbers
13 spp. in our area, close to 80 total(1)
Range
throughout NA and much of the world (highest species richness in Australasia); among our spp., three are widespread (livida, vicina, vomitoria), the rest mostly boreal transcontinental and/or western montane(2)(1)
Remarks
The heartbeat is fast, at least in adults, about 375 beats per minute when hemolymph is pumped forward, 175 beats when pumped backwards.
Internet References
(3)
Works Cited
1.Revision of the Nearctic Calliphora Robineau-Desvoidy (Diptera: Calliphoridae)
Tantawi TI, Whitworth TL, Sinclair BJ. 2017. Zootaxa 4226: 301–347.
2.Keys to the genera and species of blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) of America north of Mexico
Whitworth T.L. 2006. Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash. 108: 689–725.
3.Blow flies of North America: Keys to the subfamilies and genera of Calliphoridae, and to the species of the subfamilies...
Jones N., Whitworth T., Marshall S.A. 2019. Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification 39: 1-191.