The morning call., 1890-11-01
QUEER FACTS ABOUT FLIES.
Some Interesting Observations Upon
Cammnn Dnme sfIc Enemy.

Some Interesting Observations Upon Q
Common Domestic Enemy.
"The popular notion that house flies walk
on the ceiling by the help of suckers on their
feet is mistaken one," said man of sci
ence to Washington Star reporter Not
withstandlng the testimony on this point Of
many old and respected authors, the fact is
that the fly has no suckers on its feet at all,
but each of those six members ends in a
pair Of little cushions and pair of hooks.
The cushions are covered with ever so many
knobbed hairs, which are kept moist by an
exudlng fluid. Thus a fly is able to walk on
smooth wall or ceiling or window-paue
and apparently defy the law of gravitation,
by the adherng power of the moist, hairy
pads. You will understand the theory of it
II you will touch the moistened end of your
forefinger to the window glass or any
smooth surface and observe the perceptibie
adhesion. For walking on rough surfaces
the hy'S toot-cushlolS are of no use; but
the insect is provided with the twelve strong
hooks mentioned to do its rough travel with,
ciinging by them to any such surface as
whtewashed wall or cloth.
Another prevalent fallacy is that tho
smaller flies seen in houses are young ones.
As is the case with all insects, the fiy's
growth is accomplished in the larya state:
it ends with the issuing from the pupa and
the expansion of the wings. individual
flies differ in size at maturity, just as Is the
case with man and other animals. Every
house fly that you see was once a crawling
maggot. The eggs laid by the female fly are
usually deposited III warm manure or in de-
composing vegetation. Each stable in sum-
mer that is not kept remarkably clean is q
Matching and propagatlDg place for flies.
Within twenty-fOur hours after the eggs are
laid they are hatched out into footless mag
gots, which inhabit the filth they are born i'll
Ior week, then contract to little brown OBJ
Jects known as pupara Within this hard
ened skin the maggot is transformed into the
perfect fly, which crawls out of the pupar-
ium five days later, already grown to full
size, aud wings its way to share your
luncheon. A fly lives about three weeks.
When the cold weather comes the flies nearly
all die; but few vigorous females remain
torpid in hooks and crannies, thus surviving
the wi nter and continuing their species the
following summer. The fly has several
Parasites, the mest common of which is q
little red mite, which attaches itself near the
base OF the fly wings, and fungus plant
that often fastens IL 10 windOw-pane.
Another very Interesting creature, suffi-
GENTLY. common, but very little known
about, is the earth worm, which may be
called the original tiller of the soil, mas
much as it has created, by passing vegetable
matter through its body, all of the fruitful
mold and loan that at present covers the
surface Of the earth. By the process men
toned earth worms have been known to
laioO u HCiu IltCCu luClCo III CiSub YCdlS-
According to Darwin the farmer only mi-
tateS the earth worm in a clumsy way, with
out being able to bury the pebbles or sift the
fine from the coarse soil, rs the earth
worm is doing all the time. A we'll
known seedman of Marblehead, Mass,
carefully collected tue castings OF
earth worms for one season over a
given area, and they measured nearly q
quart to the square foot, or enough to raise
the surface OF tile land half an inch. He
also. by experiment, showed that an acre of
land might contain six tons OF worms. Won
Hensen estimated 90, 767 worms TO the acre,
and that they would make 81 pounds of
mold every twenty-four hours. Darwin
said that earth worms had undoubtedly
helped very Importantly TO bury ancient
buildings. The earth worm has no sex. If
you examine its body with lens you will
discover that each of the numerous rings or
joints into which it is divided is furnished
with four pairs of minute hooks, which take
the place of legs and by means OF which its
movements are aided"