Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-12-20
SCIENTIFIC.

The Life of the Hoase-Fly.-The COM
mOnest insect on our continent Is the
house-f1y (Muscd Gomestica); and yet
how many know its life histOryi Every
body is familiar with its habits in the
adult state, when it buzzes nOisily
around sleeping anu iviug-rOOms,
wherever team penetrate, and tOrments
the most patient spirit with its rest
lessly- meddlesOme dispO-
sition. Yet ask where it was born and
bred, and what sort OF q life it had
prior to its appearance upon the scene,
full-grOwn and equipped as a two
winged and six-legged bandit and
sklrmisher, and the answer will prob
ably amount, in the sum of its infOr-
nation, to a cipher. 1t is only very
lately that naturalists have learned its
mode of growth; therefore common
folks are excusable for ignorance of
its complete career.
In the american Naturalist, NJ. A. 5.
Packard, Jr., gives an account OF his
investigations into the subject. which
were pursued two summers ago. This
observer placed hOuse-fiy in a glass
bottle, where she was secure and yet
visible; and in fourteen hours noted
that she had deposited 100 eggs. These
were long, slender, and cylindrical, and
a little smaller at one end than the
other. They were laid in irregular
heaps on the bottom of the bottle. and,
just forty-eight hours after, number
of them had Matched. and the young
maggOts were crawling around in quest
of something to eat. Again, the OBJ
server placed some fresh hOrse-manure
at an open window in the sun. and ad-
ded new masses from time to time dur
ing several weeks. This, being suited
to their needs, attracted many flies,
which deposited eggs In the cracks and
crevices or on the surface; and thus
their young were under the eye of the
naturalist in all stages of their develop
ment.
The shell of the egg is so dense that
the changes of the embryo are hid from
view, but in twenty-fOur hours the
young maggOt was ready to come out.
Those Matched I'm confinement were
four or five hours later, and the young
were smaller. When one day old, the
maggOts went through the process of
mOltIng; and, when two days or two
days and half old, repeated the pro-
cess, After the second molting they
lived three or four days, and then
passed into the pupa or chrysalis state.
In this dormant condition they slept
for from five to seven days, and then,
pushing OFF the end of the pupa-case
emerged in the form of a house-tiy,
ready to course through the air and
alight on some human nose, and tickle
1t intOlerably with their fast-playing
feet, or to dip into some dish of entic-
ing sweets and snck their fill of it.
"When free from its prison." says
Mr.. Packard, "the fly walks. or rather
runs, nervOusly about, as if labOring
under a great deal of mental excite
ment, and quite dazed by the new
world of life and light about it; for, as
a maggot, it was blind, deaf, and dumb.
Now its wings are soft, small, baggy,
and half their final size. The fluid that
fills them soon, however, dries up, the
skin of the fly attains the cOlors of ma
turity, and 1t flies off with buzz of
contentmentandl light born
of its mercurial temperament. That
the fly not only throws off, i'll its buzz,
songs of the affections, love-ditties, but
also may vary its notes accordingly as
1t is elevated or depressed in spirits
concerning more trivial and less ab-
sOrbing matters, we are assured by Sir
John Lubbock, who says that the
sounds of insects do not merely serve
to bring the sexes together; they are
not merely 'lOve-songs,' but also serve,
like any true language, to express the
feelings =
The life of house fly born in Au-
gust is generally closed in from four to
six weeks, and is cut OFF by the frost or
by the attacks of fungus plants. A few
probably survive until the ensuing
summer, and these serve to perpetuate
the species. The house fly OF America
is supposed to be identical with the
hOuse-fy of Europe.