A large fly with a metallic-blue or greenish body that deposits its eggs on decaying animal matter and meat.
Compound of blow (Old English blawan, to breathe or inflate) plus fly. The name may reference the insect's buzzing sound or its rapid, forceful egg-laying behavior.
Medieval doctors didn't understand germ theory, but they knew maggots cleaned wounds—so they would deliberately introduce blowfly larvae to infected areas, an accidental discovery of what we'd call biological medicine!
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