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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



abundant of the flies reared were Helicobia quadrisetosa, Sepsis violacea, 

 Nemopoda minuta, Limosina albipennis, Limosina fontinalis, Sphrero- 

 cera subsultans and Scatophaga furcata, while the most abundant forms 

 captured were Phormia terramovce and Borborus equinus. In a second 

 class, not including the most abundant forms reared and captured, but 

 including species which were rather abundantly found, were Sarcophaga 

 sarracenice, Sarcophaga assidua, Sarcophaga trivialis, Musca domestica 

 (the common house-fly), Morellia micans, Muscina stabulans, Myospila 

 meditabunda, Ophyra leucostoma, Phorbia cinerella, and Spharocera 

 pasilla, of the reared series, and PseudopyrelUa cornicina and Limosina 

 crassimana among the captured series. All the others of the seventy- 

 seven species were either scarce or not abundant. 



The results so far stated and the observations made in the inves- 

 tigation as a whole have a distinct entomological interest, as showing 

 the exact food habits of a large number of species, many of the obser- 



Fig. 4. Scatophaga furcata— enlarged. 



vations being novel contributions to the previous knowledge of these 

 forms. But the principal bearings of the work are only brought out 

 when we consider which of these forms are likely, from their habits, 

 actually to convey disease germs from the substance in which they 

 have bred or which they have frequented to substances upon which 

 people feed. Therefore, collections of the Dipterous insects (flies) 

 occurring in kitchens, pantries and dining rooms were made, with 

 the assistance of correspondents and observers in different parts of the 

 country, through the summer of 1899, and also in the summer and 

 autumn of 1900. Such collections were made in the States of Massa- 

 chusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, Florida, 

 Georgia, Louisiana, Nebraska and California. Nearly all of the flies thus 

 captured were caught upon sheets of the ordinary sticky fly-paper, 

 which, while ruining them as cabinet specimens, did not disfigure 

 them beyond the point of specific recognition. 



