TWO-WINGED INSECTS 335 



blood which remains in the spot ; but this is a trouble- 

 some task when one has several hundred punctures in 

 the course of a day [like Prince Siror, in one of Bulwer 

 Lytton's stories, who fell " pierced by five hundred ""^^ 



spears"]. I took the trouble to dissect specimens, to ▼ 



ascertain the way in which the little pests operate. The 

 mouth consists of a pair of thick fleshy lips, and two 

 triangrular hornv lancets, answerinsr to the upper lip and 



r , ' . ^, . . '^ ,• , r 1 1 Ph.,.i,,U'.P.Dand.,F.Z.S 



tongue of other msects. Ihis is applied closely to the 



, ■ . J u .u . . 1 .u ui J HOUSE-FLY (MALE AND FEMALE) 



skin, a puncture is made with the lancets, and the blood ^ ' 



.1 1 J . i_ u u 1. i-T- • i. il 1- ^^' larfte of the kauie-Hv li've in refuie^ so do not 



then sucked through between these into the oesophagus, ,*,,„,-,.*, , /., r k i 



the circular spot which results coinciding with the 



shape of the lips. In the course of a few days the red spots dry up, and the skin in time 



becomes blackened with the endless number of discoloured punctures that are crowded together. 



The irritation they produce is more acutely felt by some persons than others. I once traveled 



with a middle-aged Portuguese who was laid up for three weeks from the attacks of Pium, his 



legs being swelled to an enormous size, and the punctures aggravated into spreading sores." 



However, the traveler in Amazonia has one consolation : the great rivers which traverse 



the forests are of three different colours; and the black-water rivers — so called from the dark 



colour of the water, owing apparently to the amount of vegetable matter which they hold in 



solution — are never infested with mosquitoes. Probably the character of the water renders it 



unsuitable to them for breeding purposes. 



The Crane-flies, or D.\DDV-L0NG-LEGS, are also very injurious insects, but in a different 



manner, for their subterranean maggots feed on and destroy the roots of grass in the same 



way as the grubs of the Cockchafers. They are insects of considerable size, with slender bodies, 



terminating in a short, horny point (the ovipositer) in the female, and with long, slender legs, 



which are liable to break off at the least touch. The commonest species has a grey body and 



transparent wings; but there is a larger one with the wings prettily variegated with brown, 



and a smaller one in which there are yellow markings towards the end of the body. 



The more typical Flies have usualh' shorter and broader wings, and thicker, shorter, and 



more hairy legs, than those just mentioned; and the antenn;e ha\e usually only three or four 



joints, and are often furnished with a long, slender bristle at or before the end of the last joint. 



As in the case of the Gnats and Crane-flies, so as regards the more typical Flies, we have 



only space to notice a few of the more important families. 



Some of the Gad-FLIES are no larger than house-flies, but others are as large as wasps or 



larger, with broader wings, and of a black, grey, or yellowish colour; they frequent fields, and 



settle on cattle, or on our clothes or hands. Some have transparent and others dark-coloured 



wings, but they are all capable of inflicting a severe puncture, often sufficient to draw blood, 



even in the case of the smaller species. 



The prettiest of the gad-flies are the GoLDEN-EVED Flies. 



They are black, with the abdomen more or less marked with 



yellow ; and black, or black and transparent, wings. The eyes 



are of a beautiful golden green, dotted and lined with purple. 



They are moderatel\- stout insects, about the third of an inch 



long, and are not uncommon. Another insect, known as the 



Bloou-SUCKING Raix-FLV, has a rather long and slender body 



for a gad-fl\-, and is nearl)- half an inch long. It is of a 



lighter or darker grey, with reddish markings on the sides of 



ph,!tbyic.p.Dand,,T.z.s. thcabdomen in the male. The wings are greyish brown with 



BLUE-BOTTLE FLY, OR ^vhitish dots, and a white mark towards the tip. Both these 



BLOvV-FLl ' 



„, „ t - L flies are very troublesome, the latter chiefly on the edges of 



Ineic Jiies depoitt thetr eggs en meat^ •' ^ c> 



■whenit htcomes '^fiy-hhiun" woods or near water, especially in rainy weather. 



