Adults commonly about 10–14 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Lucilia sericata
A metallic green fly that can clean chronic wounds and measure time after death.
About this species
Common European Greenbottle
Lucilia sericata(Meigen, 1826)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Lucilia sericata is a widespread green blow fly whose larvae develop rapidly in carrion and occasionally living tissue. The same feeding biology has made it important in both forensic entomology and sterile maggot debridement therapy.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Diptera · Calliphoridae · Lucilia
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
temperate and subtropical regions worldwideBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
temperate and subtropical regions worldwide
Carrion-rich rural and urban habitats, livestock areas, refuse sites and buildings.
Adults are diurnal and most active in warm sunny conditions.
Adults visit flowers and liquids; larvae consume decomposing animal tissue or necrotic tissue in treated wounds.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Sterile larvae are deliberately placed in chronic wounds, where they digest dead tissue while leaving living tissue largely unharmed.
Larval secretions liquefy necrotic material, and swallowed wound bacteria can be destroyed as they pass through the maggot gut.
Forensic estimates are highly temperature-sensitive: an error of only 2°C can shift a larval age calculation by roughly 15–30 percent.