TASTE AND SMELL IN INSECTS. 375 



question, who will place a plate of salt, and a plate 

 filled with moist sugar, in a sunny window on a 

 fine day ; it will soon become evident which will 

 be favoured with the attention of the flies. 



Neither has any mention been made of a nose.* 

 A common flesh-fly, however, will soon satisfy 

 us, that it is not devoid of some organ or other 

 which answers this purpose. If we cover a piece 

 of meat under a cloth, or put it into a wire 

 safe where it is certain that the fly cannot see 

 it, it will scent it out as readily, or even more 

 so, than a cat or a dog would. Sometimes this 

 insect's nose proves a treacherous guide, for 

 a plant has been described, called the carrion- 

 flower, which diffuses an odour like that of putrid 

 meat, which attracts the fly, and induces it to 

 deposit its eggs thereon, under the idea that its 

 future young will thus be hatched upon a certain 

 source of food ; but in vain, for they perish almost 

 as soon as born, finding nothing in the plant 

 whereon to exist. f But as to the precise seat of the 



* If we refuse to adopt Dr. Erichson's view of the use of the 

 antennae. 



f This plant is a native of South Africa, and a fine specimen 

 of it exists in the conservatories at Kew. Its botanical name is 

 Stapelia. 



