Beneficial aspects of blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

The beneficial aspects of blowflies are viewed anthropocentrically. Despite the problems that blowflies cause man, and the disgust they engender, they play a valuable role as pollinators of some plants in horticulture and can increase seed yields. Without the early invasion of carrion by blowflies and their preparation of it for the arrival of other arthropods, the processes of putrefaction and decay of corpses would be limited. Because blowflies are the first insects to arrive at a dead body, and different species groups oviposit in a strict sequence, they are valuable in forensic medicine as determinants of the time of death. The use of blowfly maggots for the healing of osteomyelitis wounds has been superseded by antibiotics but, when surgical maggots were in vogue, they helped heal large numbers of otherwise intractable lesions. The beneficial aspects of Calliphoridae extend even to their use as food by man, although this practice is not widespread and other insect species have more appeal and are eaten more frequently. Blowflies are also of religious value or recreational use to some races of man.