Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-12-20
TRUTHS ABOUT THE FLY
What is Known About His Wonderful
OrganiSm.i
How He Crawls and Walks ! How
Liquids are DevOured-His Hear
ing and Seeing Apparatus.
Baby bye, here's a fly.
Let us watch. Won and ]. y

WdtcQ LOU. tIadpS III sucu a case
he will expect to be addressed as musca
domestica.
To follow the poets train of thought
"How he crawls, up the walls, yet he never
falls"
The former theory that this is accom-
plished by suction as a brick can be
raised from the ground by piece of wet
leather, is exploded. And we are now
told, on French authority, that it is due
to the presence OF the many minute hairs
on the feet, from ten to twelve thousand
in all, each terminating in a bulb, which
by exuding an oily liquid adheres to sur
faces by capillary attraction. When the
fly tries to walk up wet surface the
moisture prevents the oil from coming
in contact with the surface, and so there
is no attraction and consequently no sue
cess. Dust acts in an equally unfavora
BILE way by clogging in the hairs, which
must, therefore, be kept perfectly clean.
Rubbing the legs together partly cleanses
them, but not perfectly, so the fly curry
combs himself by passing the legs Over
wings, on which are rough hairs. But the
head is supplied with different kind,
SO these are also utilized as brushes.
Anyone who has used fly toilet, and who
large head, working on so small pivot,
could be SO roughly pulled about without
danger OF decapitation. Go to the fly
thou officeholder and learn how to keep
your head on.
A French writer says ''the walking of
insects may be compared to that OF three
men IN Indian ile; the foremost and
hindmost of whom keep step, while the
i a L. H. oil
If humanity employed such a complex
system of lOcomOtiOn as this, what a
stupenduous accomplishment bays first
step would then be matter of far more
vital import than now. To walk on a
vertical plane with six feet to be man
aged in this preplexing way, would it not
need the whole of the period of legal
| infantheod to become an accomplished
| pedestrian? This is one of the cases
| where %critique of pare reason" would
seem to prove that even when it is oom-
bined with experience it falls short of
| instinct. Toward the end of autumn the
| flies sometimes have rheumatic appear
| ance, finding difficulty in detaching the
feet. It is supposed that age and inErm-
| ity have left them too weak to lift the
| feet with the necessary force. Perhaps,
after the manner Of humanity, some who
| have been in a werner place and are less
stiff than the rest, jeer at their compan-
| ions, and tell them that their feet are so
large that when they once get them plant
ed, is requires super fly strength to raise
! them.
Inspeaking of the instrument by which
the fly sucks up liquids, one good aGthor-
ity says: "It is impossible to describe
| fnI init Ix, II
view of this statement, l think a besom-
ing Eaodesty would -equire me to pass
over the subject lightIy, especially as
after reading the description, l fully
agreed with the writer. However | will
quote another writer on tbs subject:
'sWhea the fly settles on lump of sugar
or other sweet substance, it unbends and
extends ;ts tongue, and the knot-iike end
divides into two broad leaves which pre-
sent sucker-like surface, rough like a
rasp, and as it is by means of this that
| the fly causes mischief to book covers
and leases us in summer by slipping the
pers piration. ANY solid sweet substance
is first dissolved by the Ay's saliva and
| can thea be slipped up"
We are told that when We see dead flies
with whitish bodies fastened to the OBJ
have died from eating some poisonous
substance or from over-eating any food.
Wherefore I conclude that IN fly ethics
gluttony is one of the mortal sins.
Youthful humanity is taught that the
possession of two eyes, and only one ton
que, teaches that one should see twice as
much as he tells. But on this principle,
mamma fly must teach her young hope
L A a. IL
as hs tells musca domestica would serve
for model school master in that he has
eyes in the back of his head; being thus
endowed not only with foresight, but with
retrospe otion and circumspection. Our
two eyes give but one image to the
brain, so the 1000 focets of the flies
do not show him 1900 dangers where one
turks. Yet he is as alert as if he saw f.
600 pressing upon him from all sides.
Prove it by engaging in the infantile
amusement of chasing one over a window
pain and after few minutes you will ao-
knowledge that child's play is not the
proper name for the work. If you are
good hunter you may corner your prey,
but with fair field and 40 favor he is
too much for YOU" "Semper Paratus"
must be his watchword. He does not &C.
casionally take swing il what child
lately called hammock for bugs, the
spiders web, but the ogre entraps him
not chases him.
The fly is supposed to hear through its
antennae or horns as they are sometimes
called. These consist of three Joints
with plume projecting from the lower
one.
The sense of smell probably resides in
the alulets or little wings, the second
pair. There seems, however, to be some
doubt about this in the minds of the en-
tomologists, but not in regard TO their
other use, that of balancing the fly in its
flight, as removing one Or both produces
in the fly tie effect of balancing to part
ners. The alulets are also called balan-
GERS.
The wings proper, instead of being
composed of only one membrane, as they
appear to the naked eye are formed of
two membranes Joined a. the edges. The
black lines that We see running through
them act as ribs of an umbrella to keep
the membranes stretched in place. Being
hollow they are supposed to act as pass
ages to produce the buzzing sound. The
wings In ordinary flight are moved about
600 times in a second and carry the fly
five feet; but if necessary this can be in
creased to thirty feet, a second, one third
as far as race horse could go in the
same time.
We are told single fly can produce
TAG, 1876 young in three months, laying
about 120 eggs cylindrical in form and
jo;nted at the end; the surface shining
like the mother of pearl. After about
twenty-four hours the larva leaves the
in of he