T32 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



cultivated land about South Balfern. In plantations 

 about Stewarton occurred Erythrcea Centaurium, 

 Oxalis,Hierac. vulgatum, Blechnuin and Adianf. nig., 

 both very rare, Myrrhis abundant ; and on the shingle 

 at Garliestown, Atriple.x Babingtonii, Scdum acre, Sec. 

 A short walk from Newton in the evening to the 

 Moss of Shin yielded a luxuriant form of Triodia 

 decm/ibens, a dark glumecl form of Carex curta, near 

 alpicola, Carex ampullacea, binervis, pilidifera, 

 Gnaphalium dioiciim, Junciis sqitarrosus, Nardil s 

 stricta, Salix pentandra, Menyanthes, Comarum, 

 Carex pallescens, etc. Altogether this day added 80 

 species to the previous list. 



(To be continued.) 



for this service, but its immensely prolific nature 

 adds another qualification. 



It has been calculated that one female fly is capable 

 of producing twenty thousand young, thus enabling 

 it to efficiently perform its appointed sphere of use- 

 fulness. It is ovoviviparous, and " Redi has ascer- 

 tained, the larvae will in twenty-four hours devour 

 so much food, and grow so quickly, as to increase 

 their weight two hundredfold ! In five days 

 they arrive at their full growth and size, and it is 

 a remarkable instance of the care of Providence in 

 fitting them for the part they are destined to act, for 

 if a longer time was required for their growth, their 

 food would not be fit aliment for them, or they would 



Fig. 90.— Teeth of Sarcophaga camaria (chequered blowfly). X 330 diameters. 



TEETH OF FLIES. 



THE CHEQUERED BLOWFLY, 

 riJAGA CARNARIA). 



(SARCO- 



By W. H. Harris. 

 No. V. 



FOR the removal of dead and offensive matter, 

 few insects can compare with the creature from 

 which the present illustration is taken. It is one of 

 the very busy army of unpaid scavengers, rendering to 

 mankind an indirect but nevertheless useful service. 

 Not alone in the matter of diet is it specially adapted 



be too long in removing the nuisance it is given in 

 charge to them to dissipate" (Kirby and Spence). 

 It is a large and rather handsome fly. The thorax is 

 marked with four longitudinal stripes of a silvery 

 grey tint, while the abdomen has the appearance of 

 alternately being black or grey in patches, according 

 as the light falls on the creature. Swift in flight, its 

 musical hum is the announcement of energy, and it 

 thus eloquently proclaims it has no time to waste in 

 idleness or ease, hence it is a rather difficult fly to 

 capture. 



The teeth forms a very compact group. They 

 are less numerous than in some other members 



