40 . DRAGON FLIES VS. MOSQUITOES. 



to the narrator. " Nature " ^^^ published a resume of the 

 newspaper accounts of the fly plague which occurred dur- 

 ing August and early September, 1880, in Canada and 

 northern New York. The buzzing of these swarms was 

 distinctly heard by many who missed seeing them. The 

 swarms resembled dark clouds and lasted many hours 

 while passing. The steamer " Martin," on the Hudson, 

 near Newbnrgh, New York, encountered what seemed a 

 "great drift of black snow, reaching from shore to shore, 

 as far as the eye could reach. There were millions upon 

 millions of these flies, and they hurried northward as 

 thick as snowflakes driven by a strong; wind." 



The popular and semiscientific journals abound with 

 accounts like the above, and many references could be 

 made ; but these will suffice. When we come to that 

 phase of its life histories in which the testimony for or 

 against the nnobstructed existence of M. domestica is to 

 be gleaned, we find that comparatively little has yet been 

 discovered. In our chapter on the medical aud economic 

 character of the subject a full discussion will be found. 



"Doubtless the great majority of people," says Har- 

 rington, ^2 " would affirm that the house fly is in the habit 

 of biting persons. But, from the formation of the fly's 

 proboscis (Plate IV., Fig. 5) with its feebly developed 

 mandibles, it hardly seems probable that the skin could 

 be punctured. * * * However this may be, it appears 

 that the culprit who thus assails, especially during show- 

 ery weather and late in the season, is a distinct species, 

 although it so closely resembles M. domestica. Its name 

 is Stomoxys calcitrans, and it is distinguished by its long 

 horny beak, which, as pointed out by De Geer, has a " long 

 _and very sharp lancet sliding in a groove, while the fleshy 



