The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1885-10-24

the hinder part OF the pulVlllus (cuSD-
ion), where the tenent hairs are least
developed, first, and so on forwards. If
the claws were attached to the fifth
joint, as it has been supposed, they
could not act equally well in the way /
have mentioned; and / think fly when
once stuck fast, if it had no claws, might
remain So"
| 1t should be noticed, as any one may
do, that the fly, like all insects, moves
the legs of each pair alternately in
walking. After all, the pressure of the
atmosphere is the main agent by which
fly is able to adhere to perfectly
smooth surfaces.
Flies are distinguished from most 9TH
err insects by having but single pair of
wings; what corresponds to the second
or hinder pair in other insects being a
pair of knob-like "balancers." The
flight of the house fly is most rapid in
warm, sultry weather. We all know
how busy and pertinacious their move
ments are in dog-day weather.
1t has been found that common fly
when held captive moves its wings three
hundred and thirty times minute,
whereas honey-bee, whose powers of
continued flight are much greater,
moves its wings one hundred and ninety
times in the same period. The wings
describe figure in the air.
The buzz of the fly has been carefully
studied by Landois. During flight the
| hy's buzz or hum is in relatively low
tone; when it is held so that the wings
can not move the buzz is higher in pitch.
and it is higher still when the fly is held
so that all motion of the external parts
is prevented. The last mentioned is
the true voice of the insect; it is pro-
duced by the breathing holes of the
thorax. The buzz of the fly thus ex-
presses the emotions of the creature;
the low hum being one of contentment.
the shrill, excited buzz one of alarm and
disturbance.
| When fly alights upon our hand or
face on a hot day it is for the purpose
of tapping the perspiration from the
skin. How this is done is q curious
study. When the fly, to quote from
our ''Guide to the Study of Insects, I"
settles upon lump of sugar, or other
sweet object, it unbends and extends
its tongue, and the broad knob-like end
divides into two fiat, muscular leaves.
which thus present a sucker-like sur
face, with which the fly laps up liquid
sweets These two leaves are supported
upon framework of chitinous rods,
which act as a set of springs to open
| and shut the muscular leaves. The
inside of this broad aeshy expansion is
rough like rasp, and, as Newport
states, is easily employed by the insect
in scraping or tearing delicate surfaces.
1t is by means of this curious structure
that the busy house-fy occasions much
mischief to the covers of our books, by
scraping off the albuminous polish, and
leaving traces of it's depredations in the
soiled and spotted appearance which it
occasions on them.
The structure of the f1y's tongue, and
of the whole apparatus for taking its
food. has engaged the attention in late
years of some of our best ANTAGONISTS OF
insects. Its structure is so complicated
and difficult to understand, and labored
anatomical descriptions are so dry. that
we will not here describe it, but content
ourselves with referring the reader for
an excellent description of the fy's
Iproboscis to Professor Macloskie' s
article in the american Naturalist for
March, 1880. Suffice it to say that the
fly has not, as have beetles and grass
hoppers, free jaws and accessory Jaws
for biting and tearing the food. but all
the mouth-parts of other insects are
represented by the fiy's proboscis, the
larger part of which is formed by the
under lip; the enlarged and variously
modified fleshy extremity of which
forms sucking organ. What little
food is taken by the fly is fluid; sweet
fluids are its favorite diet.
But whence come the swarm of mid
summer flies, and how do they keep in
creasing through August? What be-
comes of them in the winter? How
long do they live. and what of the man.
ner of life of their young? Are the
small flies the children of the larger
onesP
So little was known about the early
history of the house-fy that we once
endeavored, and with fair success, to
study its transformations. During Au-
gust the house-hy is particularly abund-
ant, and especially so in and about sta
bles. On placing fly in bottle she
laid between six p. m, August IL, and
eight o'clock the next morning, one
hundred and twenty eggs. They were
deposited irfegularly in stacks. lying
loose in two piles at the bottom of the
bottle. The next day several maggots.
as the larvar are called, were observed
crawling about in the bottom of the
bottle. Afterwards by placing mass
of ohal in the sun, the flies came and
laid their little white slender eggs, which
Matched out, SO that thousands of with
ing maggots abounAed in the mass.
1t was found that the young maggots
Matched in twenty-four hours after the
| eggs were laid. AT first they are but
little larger than the eggs. After re-
manning in the first stage for one day
! the maggot mouths, being a little larger
than before. After another day it sheds