THE FLY 185 



the actor, this little scene is very amusing to watch. 



At the instant of birth it is very active and rushes 

 away in a flash. The entire blessed(?) event may 

 take but fifteen seconds in occurrence. 



The wings are the only part not fully developed at 

 birth. They are folded up and in twenty minutes 

 they expand and we have a fully grown fly. They are 

 weak and the least disturbance, like fastening them 

 on fly paper, even if carefully done, seems to stop 

 development of the wings. 



The fly's head is one fourth of his body and his 

 eyes a good portion of the head. It is extremely diffi- 

 cult to picture his head and mouth parts in a living 

 specimen large enough to show the parts and keep 

 the rest of the body sharp. The eye is made up of 

 hundreds of lenses from which the light glances off. 

 They enable it to see in all directions without turn- 

 ing its head. Each lens casts its own image, so if a 

 fly's eye is used in place of a microscope lens, one 

 person approaching would look like an army. 

 Whether the fly's instinct or intelligence tells him it 

 is one object or not we have no way of knowing. 



A fly eats almost everything. His proboscis is ex- 

 tended. The flattened funnel end covers consider- 

 able area and liquid foods are sucked up. If the food 

 is dry and hard like cube sugar he spits on it first to 



