Wohlfahrtia

A genus of larviparous dipterous fleshflies (family Sarcophagidae), of which some species ' larvae breed in ulcerated surfaces and flesh wounds of humans and animals. Important species include W. magnifica, a widely distributed obligatory fleshfly whose tissue-destroying maggots invade wounds or head cavities of domestic animals and humans; W. nuba, a facultative fleshfly of Old World distribution, also found in head wounds or head cavities but not in dermal sores; and W. vigil (W. opaca), which produces cutaneous myiasis in human infants in the northern U.S. and southern Canada by larvae that penetrate the skin and cause infected, boil-like, or furuncular lesions; mink and fox pups in fur farms, and probably rabbits and rodents, are attacked by this species. [P. Wohlfahrt, Ger. medical writer, †1726]

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wohl·fahr·tia .vōl-'färt-ē-ə n

1) cap a genus of larviparous dipteran flies of the family Sarcophagidae that commonly deposit their larvae in wounds or on the intact skin of humans and domestic animals causing severe cutaneous myiasis

2) any fly of the genus Wohlfahrtia

Wol·fart 'vōl-.färt Peter (1675-1726)

German physician. Wolfart was a practicing physician in Hanau, Germany, as well as a professor of medicine and anatomy, first at the secondary school and later at the college there.

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n.

a genus of non-bloodsucking flies. Females of the species W. magnifica and W. vigil deposit their parasitic maggots in wounds and the openings of the body. This causes myiasis, particularly in children.

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Wohl·fahr·tia (vōl-fahrґte-ə) [Peter Wohlfahrt, German medical writer, 1675–1726] a genus of flesh flies of the family Sarcophagidae.