Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-07-09
For the Freeman.
A Chat with Farmers.
BY AGRICOLA.
ABOUT NoxIoUs INSECTS.

| ABOUT NOXlOUS INSECTS.
Mosquitoes, gnats and flies come mex
under review. They have horny O
lleshy proboscis and two knobbed poisers
Their Transformation is complete. AT frs
they are maggots without feet or wings o.
bills. These are all taken on at the mex
stage Of their being. The two winged in
ser,s are not very large, but they are very
numerous, both in species and in individ
uals of the same kind. Indeed, they
swarm in countless mullitudes.
Flies live wholly on liquid food, ant
have provided for them a proboscis exactl,
adapted to their wants.
No mortal who has ever lived in O,
near marshy places need be told of tn,
blood-thirsty propensties of gnats anc
mosquitoes. They are shameless and 40
gravating diSturbers of the peace, anc
have incurred the everlasting hatred O.
human kind. The black flies of this coun
try come in for share of this hatred
The larvae of these inst cts live in stagnanI
water. Horse flies, the golden-eyed foresl
flies apd the singing stable flies whose
lar,@ live in the ground, attack both man
and beast, and sometimes drive them al.
most TO madness.
And then we find the winged horse
ticks, the bird flies, the wingless sheen
ticks, the spider flies and the bee lice,
which pass their whole annoying lives on
the skin of other animals.
The CAD fly lives in the bodies of horses,
cattle, sheep and other animals while in
the larvae state, and then eats ENOUGH Ia
last him his short life. Hence in the
winged state he takes no food, and is DIES
titute of prohoscs.
Some flies that are harmless in the
winged state deposit their eggs on plants.
on the juices of which the young subsist,
and hence they are very destructive to the
growing crops. Among the most destruc'..
i've of these are the gall gnats, the wheat
fly and the Hessian fly, the root eatinv
maggots OF some of the long legged gnats,
he flower flies and the two winged gall
flies and the fruit flies, the common bonsp
fly, the meat fly, the flesh fly and the
cheese tly,-the parent of the we'll known
" shippers y found in old cheese!
But some flies are harmless, and others
are even useful in various WAYS. Hons
flies and flesh flies, while Larvae, feed upon
filth. and joining their service with yari.
ons tribes OF Scavenger beetles, aid in the
work of pur ficaion
Another large class, while in the Larvae
state, live in water upon the vegetable.
matter which it contains, and in this wa,
prevent that water from becoming putrid
The magSots of other flies live in the
mushroom, toadstool, decaying wood, and
IN the eXcrescences of growing trees,
and join their service with the destructive
beetle, to hasten the removal OF these USE
less substances and make room for new
vegetation. These wood eating insects.
when transformed into flies, as most of
them are, live on other insects, And
some, though not predaceous themselves,
deposit their eggs among plant lice, upon
whose blood the young, when Matched
will subsist. Many of these law lhei,
eggs on catcrpillals, and the maooots
Matched from them live on their victims
until destroyed. And still others dron
their eggs into the nests of insects, to roI,
their offspring Of their food and thus starve
them 10 death. In such ways flies and
other insects subserve an important pur.
pose in the economy Of nature.
Bats, moles and many birds live partly
or wholly on insects. The nightingale
and thrush, the finest song birds we have.
feast with the highest relish on maggos,
flies and other insects, while the warblers
vlrcos, fly catchers and swallows deyour
the two winged insects in great numbers.
We have now alluded to seven orders
OF groups of insects, which occupy an
important field in the insect world. These
have mutual relations to each other. and
may be grouped together in cluster, SO
that each order may come in contact with
several others. Besides these, there are
several groups of Importance. These we
will consider in our next paper.