70 



THE INSECT WORLD. 



The Mucides form that great tribe of Diptera commonly known 

 as fl e and which are distributed in such abundance over the whole 

 world Faithful companions of plants, the flies follow them to the 

 utmost litrrits of vegetation. At the sam^e Ume^they are .alle^^ 



lution of dead bodies. They 

 place their eggs in the car- 

 cases of animals, and the 

 larv« prey upon the corrupt 

 flesh, thus quickly ridding the 

 earth of those fatal causes of 

 infection to its inhabitants. 

 The organs of these insects 

 are also infinitely modified, m 

 order to adapt them to their 

 various functions. 



M. Macquart divides the 

 Muscides into three sections 

 —the Creophili, the Antho- 

 niyzides, and the Acalyptera, 



The Creophili have the 

 strongest organisation; then 

 movements and their flight 

 are rapid. The greater part 

 feed on the juices of flowers 

 some on the blood or the 

 humours of animals. Some 

 deposit their eggs on differen 

 kinds of insects, others or 

 bodies in a state of decom 

 position, some again ar( 

 viviparous. The insects o 

 the genus Echinomyia, for ni 

 stance (Fig. 51), derive thei 



~c' otX iJmiM b,«B,B, ot wl„d> ,1 .. ll» come .„ 



Fig. 51.— Echinomyia grossa. 



