The Plague of Flies. 17 



on entomology. I remember I used to wonder what kind 

 of bees they had in Samson's time that would make a 

 hive in the carcass of the lion the strong man slew. No 

 bees that ever I saw had any interest in carrion, but when 

 I found out that robber-flies mimic the bumble-bees even 

 to the extent of wearing pollen-baskets on their hind- 

 legs, though these are of no use to the flies except as a 

 disguise, a great light broke upon me. Robber-flies would 

 have great business in the dead lion. As to the honey 

 that Samson got and gave to his intended, that is a diffi- 

 culty I do not feel competent to cope with. 



Almost any modification of structure may be expected 

 of the Diptera, that is to say, of the two-winged insects 

 of which the fly is a type. They are the most highly 

 specialized and variational of six-legged cattle. The 

 deer-tick, for example, no one in his senses would think 

 was a fly unless he were familiar with the difference in 

 the make-up of flies and true ticks. Whether they throw 

 off or bite off their wings is not known, but they haven't 

 them. The bat-tick, which also is not a tick, but a fly, 

 looks for all the world like a spider, so small is its body 

 and so long its legs. A spider has four pairs of legs, 

 though, instead of three. 



Many of the fly family bring forth their young alive, 

 and some have only one child at a time, but the most of 

 them believe in the good old fashion of large families. 

 Students of entomology being naturally interested in the 

 Thingninbobbius what' sit snameii of Southern Mada- 

 gascar have not yet got around to the careful study of 

 the common house-fly, and so cannot say what its domes- 

 tic arrangements are, but it is estimated that if the first 

 papa and mamma flies of the early spring could hold out 

 to attend a family reunion of their direct descendants 

 held in the latter part of August, upwards of two millions 



