634 INSECTS AT HOME. 



hatching of the young that the egg should be kept in a state 

 of moisture as well as warmth, and this point is secured by 

 depositing the egg in the recent cow-dung. This, however, is 

 not all. If the egg becomes dry, it shrivels up and the young 

 maggot is never hatched, while, if it should sink entirely, 

 it is drowned, so to speak, the egg requiring air as well as 

 moisture. 



This object is attained in a very simple but effective manner. 

 The egg is shaped something like that of the domestic fowl, 

 being larger at one end than at the other. At the large end, 

 two horn-like appendages project from the egg and diverge 

 from each other, their roots being about one-third of the 

 length of the egg from the upper part, so that the egg cannot 

 sink deeper than the horns. When the time comes for the 

 hatching of the larva, the egg opens at the wide end, and the 

 young grub escapes through the opening. These eggs may be 

 found in plenty, more than a hundred being stuck into a space 

 scarcely wider than a man's hand. The larva is conical in 

 shape, the head being at the apex of the cone, and the broadest 

 or tail end being armed with a number of little fleshy points. 



The common yellow Cow-dung Fly is too well known to need 

 description. The other species, Scatophaga scybalaria, which 

 is shown at Fig. 2, is orange-ochreous in colour, but througlj 

 the soft yellow hair a number of black bristles protrude. The 

 thorax and scutellum are brownish, and the first segment of the 

 abdomen is ashen-grey. The wings are slightly iridescent and 

 brown, inclining to orange on the costal margin. The tips ot 

 the thighs of the hind legs are black. 



On Woodcut LXXVI. Fig. 1 is a magnified representation of 

 a little Fly called Phora abdominalis. In this genus the 

 third joint of the antennae, instead of being long and nearly 

 cylindrical, is almost spherical. The margin of the wings in- 

 fringed. The name of abdominalis is given to this species on 

 account of the form of the abdomen, which is broad at the base 

 and tapers rapidly to the tip. One of the hind legs is shown at 

 Fig. b, and a profile view of the head is given at Fig. a. 



The colour of this species is glossy black, and the head is 

 irregularly and coarsely punctured. The palpi are orange. 

 The thorax is downy, the abdomen rust-red, and the wings 



