Status of the Two Forms of Housefly occurring in South Africa

Abstract

Although evidence¹, based on laboratory crossing experiments, exists for considering the two forms of housefly which occur in the Ethiopian region to be only subspecifically distinct from each other and from Musca domestica s. str., nothing has been published on how they interact in Nature when they are sympatric. It is important to know this, as it is well known that some species will interbreed in the laboratory whereas they seldom, or never, do so in Nature. The behaviour of M. cuthbertsoni Patton and M. curviforceps Saccà and Rivosecchi¹ (vicina auct. not Macquart), both of which occur at Johannes-burg, has therefore been investigated.