Integrative revision of the Australian carrion-breeding Calliphorinae (Diptera: Calliphoridae): Revision of the Calliphora stygia- and ochracea-groups.

Abstract

The Australian carrion-breeding species of the blowfly subfamily Calliphorinae, collectively placed in the Calliphora stygia- and ochracea-group sensu Johnston, Szpila, et al., 2025, play crucial roles in forensic science and agriculture, serving as key indicators of time since death of corpses and facultative agents of myiasis in livestock. Additionally, carrion-breeding blowflies have growing relevance in biomedical research due to their application in maggot debridement therapy and their emerging potential as sources of novel therapeutic compounds. Despite this recognised importance, the Australian representatives of these species groups remain poorly understood, with many aspects of their taxonomy and species boundaries unclear. This, in turn, complicates their reliable identification, hindering their use in applied contexts. Here, an integrative revision of the C. stygia- and ochracea-groups is presented, treating 17 species along with the taxonomically unplaced Calliphora lordhowensis, using morphology and mitochondrial DNA to elucidate species boundaries. We provide a new diagnostic key to support the identification of these groups and provide verified COX1 sequences for most species. We utilise molecular and morphological data to support the synonymisation of Calliphora albifrontalis as a junior synonym of C. stygia, which has implications for the use of this species in forensic and medical applications.