26 
RISE OF DIPTERA IN PUBLIC ESTIMATION 
Diptera alluded to above. Oken (quoted b}’’ Zeller , Isis, 1840, 
p. 10) called them “ the beggars among Insects, living in dirt.” 
Kirby and Spence, “ Introduction ” (1826), Yol. IV, p. 381, say: 
“ While the last \Hymenoptera , including the honey-bee], on account 
of their wonderful economy and the benefits which by them Provi¬ 
dence confers upon mankind, have been justly regarded as the 
princes of the winged insect world, — the former [ Diptera , or two¬ 
winged insects], when we consider the filthy and disgusting habits 
of their grubs, and the annoyance, both from their numbers and 
incessant assaults, of them, in their fly-state, may very properly be 
considered as its canaille .” 
Sixty years later B. T. Loivne, in his “ Anatomy of the Blow-fly ” 
(1890, p. 25-27), expresses himself very differently. 
“ The blow-flies belong to the family Muscidae, one of the most 
highly specialized groups of the Diptera, the most highly specialized 
order of the class Insecta.” “ Just as all discussion would be futile 
as to whether a bird or a mammal is the higher type, so it is useless 
to consider whether the Diptera or the Hymenoptera have the 
higher organization; but there can be no question as to which of 
these orders departs most from the more generalized form. The 
Diptera are far more remarkable in their developmental history, 
and in the modification of structure which they present in the adult 
or imago form. In this relation the strong tendency of many to 
produce their young alive, and the fact that some have a capacious 
matrix, or uterus, in which the larvae are hatched, or even attain 
the pupa form, before birth, is not without interest, presenting as it 
does some analogy with the viviparous character of the mammalia 
amongst vertebrates — whilst the nest-building instincts are more 
manifest in Hymenoptera and in birds. It is true that the flies, 
and more especially the heavy forms, with a comparatively tardy 
flight, like the blow-fly, have been regarded as ‘stupid’ — Sprengel 
called them ‘ die dununen Fliegen ’ — and do not excite our sym¬ 
pathy and curiosity to the same extent as the social Hymenoptera; 
but it is impossible to judge of the intellectual functions of an 
insect. The manner in which the blow-flies and their near allies, 
the house-flies, have made themselves at home with man, speaks 
for their power of adapting themselves to new and varied condi- 
