328 ANNUAL KECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



it does not seem possible that they could cope with this dif- 

 ficulty. How, then, is it done? According to Charpentier, 

 simply by means of the forceps with which the extremity of 

 the abdomen is always provided in both sexes ; the tip of 

 the body is bent upward and the forceps used with great 

 rapidity and ease, first on one side and then on the other, as 

 a sort of fingers, to bring the wings into the position which 

 M'Ould allow the action of the thoracic muscles upon the base 

 of the principal veins. Still, adds Mr. Scudder, it is difticult 

 to conceive how this operation can be performed by those 

 species whose forceps are as long as their body. American 

 Naturalist^ September, 



THE LIFE OF THE COMMON HOUSE-FLY. 



The life of the house-fly has thus been summed up by Dr. 

 A. S. Packard, Jun. It lives one day in the e^g state, from 

 five days to a week as a maggot, from five to seven days in 

 the pupa state in all, from ten to fourteen days in the 

 month of August before the winged adult period. It is 

 often asked how long-lived a fly is. Most of the flies which 

 are born in August live for a month or six weeks, and die at 

 the coming of frost, either of cold or from the attacks of fun- 

 goid plants. A few probably winter over and survive until 

 midsummer, and thus maintain the existence of the species. 

 American Naturalist^ August, 1876. 



THE PHENOMENA OF DIGESTION IN THE COCKROACH. 



In a late paper on this subject. Professor Felix Plateau 

 concludes that the food after being swallowed accumulates 

 in the crop, where it is acted upon by the salivar}^ fluid, which 

 is usually alkaline. There the starchy substances are trans- 

 formed into glucose; this first product of digestion is here 

 absorbed, and is not met with in the rest of the digestive 

 canal. The valvular apparatus, which does not play the role 

 of a triturating organ, allows small quantities of the matters 

 in process of digestion to pass into the middle intestine of 

 limited capacity. This median intestine, or stomach, as it is 

 usually called, receives the sugar secreted by eight glandular 

 caeca, the sugar being ordinarily alkaline, never acid, neutral- 

 izing the acidity as tlie contents of the crop gradually in- 

 crease, transforming the albuminoids into bodies soluble and 



