Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun any fly, of the family Sarcophagidae, that feed on carrion

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Brecht's shark with its pretty teeth, Ionesco's thunder - ing hippopotamus, Jonson's flesh-fly buzzing around the dying fox, and, most terrible of all, the Yahoo.

    SATIRE ALVIN B. KERNAN 1968

  • If any one has never seen a carcass rapidly disappearing under the steady operations of the larvae of the flesh-fly, he has yet to learn why some flies were made.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 21, July, 1859 Various

  • [422-7] The flesh-fly is the blow-fly, which lays its eggs in meat and helps its decay.

    Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 Charles Herbert Sylvester

  • The flesh-fly instead of laying eggs deposits the living larvæ upon meat wherever it is accessible, and as these develop with astonishing rapidity they are able to consume large quantities of flesh in a remarkably short time.

    Insects and Diseases A Popular Account of the Way in Which Insects may Spread or Cause some of our Common Diseases Rennie Wilbur Doane

  • Such is the habit of the great flesh-fly (Sarcophaga), of some allied genera (Tachina, etc.) whose larvae live as parasites on other insects, and occasionally of the

    The Life-Story of Insects 1902

  • The flesh-fly laying its eggs on the carrion-flower is only a striking instance of the mistakes all instincts are liable to, never more markedly than in the inherited tendency to fits of frenzied excitement: the feeling is frequently excited by the wrong object, and explodes at inopportune moments.

    The Naturalist in La Plata 1881

  • In the lower orders this increase is especially rapid, a single flesh-fly (Musca carnaria) producing 20,000 larvae, and these growing so quickly that they reach their full size in five days; hence the great

    Darwinism (1889) Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

  • As the instinct of the flesh-fly directs her to a putrid carcass to deposit her eggs, that her offspring may have their proper food, so the moth seeks the hive containing combs, and where its natural food is at hand to furnish a supply.

    Mysteries of Bee-keeping Explained 1842

  • So the putrid smell of the stapelia, or carrion-flower, allures the large flesh-fly to deposit its young worms on its beautiful petals, which perish there for want of nourishment.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • No, that must be allow'd — For my pari, i were Ml for the benefit of mankind, I'd have noil to do with them, for they are aa indifferent to me a sparrow or a flesh-fly.

    A Bold Stroke for a Wife: A Comedy 1797

Comments

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  • Spike in usage around 1820. The plot thickens! I suspect Duffel van der Pinkenhosen of having something to do with it.

    April 3, 2011

  • Ha very ha.

    *starts keeping a closer eye on Mr Leatherears*

    April 3, 2011