296 



Marvels of Insect Life* 



that in the case of the flesh-fly the eggs are hatched before they leave the parent. 

 The maggots are much larger than those of the blue-bottle, and the hinder end 

 is a steep slope deeply hollowed, and in the hollow are the two spiracles or breathing 

 inlets which are made conspicuous by their reddish tint. The edge of the depression 

 in which these lie is fringed with fleshy points which can be turned outwards to 

 expose the cavity to the air or folded in to protect the spiracles from any matter 

 that might clog them and put them out of action. Headless as the maggot is, 

 and therefore eyeless and sightless, it has a keen perception of the difference between 

 light and darkness, always strongly avoiding the light and seeking the dark. 



One remarkable power possessed by the maggots of all these flies is that of 



being able to liquefy rapidly anv 

 albuminous substance such as flesh 

 or the white of hard-boiled egg. 

 Though the mouth is provided with 

 a couple of grasping hooks, which are 

 really used as organs of locomotion, 

 they serve no purpose in breaking 

 up their food, which must be liquid 

 to enable them to consume it. To 

 this end they pour out from the 

 mouth a sort of pepsin which rapidly 

 reduces the solid muscle or boiled 

 egg to a fluid. 



Cockroaches. 



There is a well-known story of 

 a certain lexicographer who wrote in 

 his new dictionary, after the word 

 crab, what he considered a parti- 

 cularly concise definition : "A little 

 red fish that walks backwards." The 

 story goes that on submitting this 

 for the approval of a naturalist friend, 



but an out-of-doors carrion-feeder. The feiuale can deposit about +K(i IccH-f^t- i-omoi-l-f^rl +Tnf it w-i^ m n 

 twenty thousand eggs, and her progenv is thus so numerous that it ^"*- IdltCl lemaiKCCl lUai It W dS an 



can quickly dispose of offensive matter. admirable definition, biit it had three 



rather weak points : the crab is not a fish, it is not red until it has been boiled, and 

 it does not walk backwards. In a similar spirit of good-natured criticism it has 

 been pointed out that the name black-beetle, which is generallv applied to the 

 cockroach, is a good name, but that the Insect indicated is not a beetle and is not 

 black. 



Cockroaches are four-winged Insects of the straight-winged order,' and the 

 various species constitute a distinct family.- Like the other straight-winged 

 Insects, when they leave the egg they are in the form they retain through life with 

 httle change beyond increase of size and the acquisition of wings. The\- are also 

 paler in colour than when they are older. They cast their skins li\-e or si.x times, 



1 Orthoptcra. - IMatliiUc. 



Photo by] 



\P. J. Barraud. 



The Flesh-Fly. 



The flesh-fly is much hl^ce a blow fly, but lacks the blue coloration of 

 the latter, being decorated in grey and black. It is not a house-flv. 



