The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-02-07
FLIES.
They Do Not Increase In sIzc-TheIr Feet.
Eyes and Teeth.

They Do Not Increase In SIzc-TheIr Feet,
Eyes and Teeth.
"Tell us about flies," writes one
young correspondent. g Where do
they come from, and where do they go
in winter? Are there different kinds of
fliesp' While some naturalists think
that our house flies are the same as the
house fly of England, and the rest of
Europe, others regard them as differ
ent. Singularly enough, none of our
naturalists have studied our house fly.
and observed its transformations and
all that we know of the life history of
this very common insect is from OBJ
servations made in Europe. Flies, like
most other insects, have larval or
maggot state; when the maggots are
full grown they pass into the pupa or
chrysalis form, from which I'm England
in fourteen days) they come out as the
perfect insect or winged fly. 1t is
pretty well known that house flies pass
their early life as maggots- in manure,
and, as most are aware, are more abun-
dant in the neighborhood of stables
than elsewhere.
Flies do not grow. l have more
than once heard persons speak of see
ing young flies in the spring, evidently
thinking that the small flies they may
meet with are young individuals and
will grow to their full size. When the
flies come out of the chrysalis, they are
as large as they ever will be, and, if
some are smaller than others, they are
different kinds of flies. The same is
true of moths and butterflies.
1t is well known that flies can walk
up a smooth pane of glass. and along
the ceiling with their bodies down
wards without falling. The foot of the
fly, when examined by a powerful
microscope. is found to have numerous
hairs upon it, each with little disk at
the end. 1t is thought by most
naturalists that the fly can use these
disks as a boy uses leather sucker, to
enable it to cling to smooth surfaces.
The eyes of the fly are very large in
proportion to the size of the head. The
microscope shows that these are not
simple eyes, but curiously made up of
separate facets, each of which is really
an eye. The two compound eyes of the
fly are made up of about four thousand
simple ones. Human beings have only
two simple eyes.
The so-called trunk or proboscis of the
fly, which, when not in use, is bent up
under the head, is really a tongue, with
knob at the end When the fly comes
across anything sweet, this knob opens
and spreads out two fiat leaves, which
enables the insect to lap up liquids.
These leaves are rough like a rasp, and
with them the fly can tear delicate sur
faces; it often disfigures the covers of
books by scraping off their polish. 1t
also uses these rough leaves ON our
skin, and we say s'the flies bite" Ac-
cording to an English naturalist, flies
really have teeth. These are not of
bone like the teeth of the higher ami
mails, but of s'chitine," peculiar SUBJ
stance of which the hard parts of in
sects consist. A large share of the flies
die at the end of the warm season, but
enough to keep up the stock hide them
selves in hooks and crevices, and there
pass the winter. They come out of
their hiding places on the return of
spring. The blow-hy, the cheese-fy,
and others are very different in habits
from the house-fly.-American Agri-
culturiSt.