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THE STOMOXYS. 371 



larvse have found their way into the nose and frontal 

 sinuses, where their presence has caused intense pain 

 for a considerable time, until being full-grown, and 

 wanting to find some more suitable spot in which to 

 undergo their metamorphoses, the maggots, to the 

 equal astonishment and relief of the patient, have come 

 away with a violent fit of sneezing. The true nature 

 of these larvse has rarely been made out, but from 

 some statements made by Dr. Grube about two years 

 ago^, the maggots of Sarcophagce would appear some- 

 times to occur in the nose, ears, and even in the eyes 

 of human beings. 



Nearly allied to the common House-fly, and indeed 

 so like it in appearance, that the mischiefs caused by 

 the one are frequently charged upon the other, is a 

 small fly which exhibits a most gnat-like avidity for 

 the blood both of man and cattle. This is the Sto- 

 moxys calcitrans, an insect about the size of the 

 House-fly, but furnished with a much longer pro- 

 boscis, by means of which it is enabled to pierce our 

 skins even through our clothes, an exploit which the 

 gnats themselves are rarely bold enough to undertake. 

 This fly not only visits us in our apartments, but also 

 attacks us in the open air, where, from its generally 

 flying near the ground, the legs of both men and 

 animals are most liable to be wounded by it, a cir- 

 cumstance which seems to have given rise in Germany 

 to the expressive name of the '^^ Leg-sticker.^' Its 

 larva is generally said to live in horse-dung, but 

 M. Kollar of Vienna states, on the authority of 

 M. Heeger, that it mines the leaves of various plants, 

 including the Burdock [Arctium Lappa), the Colts- 



* Wiegmann's ' Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte/ xix. p. 282 ; and 

 ' Annals of Natural History,' 2nd series, xiv. p. 238. 



