ABSTRACT
Froggat suggested that the native primary blowflies in Australia began to attack living sheep because of a change of habit which resulted in their becoming attracted to their wool for oviposition or larviposition. They were supposed to have acquired this habit during great droughts when the carcasses of sheep formed a large part of the carrion on which they normally oviposited. During these times the flies deposited their eggs, or living larvae, among the wool of the dead sheep. Then ‘the smell of the dead wool taught them that the allied damp or soiled wool (of living sheep) was of a similar character’, and consequently they became attracted to the latter for purposes of oviposition or larviposition (Tillyard & Seddon, 1933). Although the evidence seems to be overwhelmingly in favour of the belief that in Australia serious blowfly attack on sheep followed the spread of the introduced species of fly, Lucilia cuprina and L. tericata, Froggat’s suggestion was interesting, and it seemed worth while to investigate experimentally the degree to which the responses of blowflies to odours could be modified by their past experience during larval or adult life. Thorpe & Jones (1937), Thorpe (1938-9) and others have, of course, already shown that such changes of behaviour may occur in insects.
