FLY 



2231 



FLY 



The road from qarbaqe can 



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LY. "A fly," wrote a small boy who had 

 had a lesson in school on the harm the little 

 pest can do, "is more dangerous than a lion, 

 but I would rather have a fly bite me than a 

 lion." Not many years ago flies were looked 

 upon as a necessary nuisance; they were trou- 

 blesome, but they were not dangerous, people 

 thought, and there was no possible way of 

 getting rid of them. A half-century ago it 

 was common at mealtime during the summer 

 months to have a servant or one of the chil- 

 dren of the family stationed near the table 

 with a leafy branch, wherewith to wave away 

 the flies which were thick in the dining-room. 

 A little later nettings were introduced, and 

 then came wire screens, to keep out as many 

 as possible; but to-day such measures are 

 looked upon as all too passive, because the 

 deadly nature of the insect is understood, and 

 regular crusades are instituted against the fly. 



But why? What can this little insect do 

 that makes it as "dangerous as a lion," and 

 has caused "Swat the fly" to become a slogan? 

 Before discussing this question it is necessary 

 to learn something about the insect. 



What a Fly Is. The name fly is applied to 

 many different kinds of insects; in fact, more 

 than 40,000 species are known to-day, but they 

 all have certain traits in common. The most 

 noticeable of several resemblances is the 

 fact that they have but two wings; the scien- 

 tific name for flies is Diptera, which means two- 

 winged. No other known insect has two wings 

 except one little scale-insect. The wings of 

 flies are always transparent, never folded as 

 are the wings of grasshoppers, and they have 

 prominent lengthwise veins. Instead of hind 

 wings most flies have two small, rod-like organs 

 which probably help the insect to balance and 

 steer itself in flight. The head of a fly is usu- 

 ally small; by far the larger part of it is made 

 up of two wonderful eyes, which are often 

 composed of thousands of facets which enable 

 their owner to see in almost any direction. A 

 few species are provided with sucking mouth- 

 parts, but fortunately the common house fly is 

 not thus equipped. 



The Commonest Fly. Of the true flies, a 

 number of groups are very well known, as the 

 gnats, blow flies, midges and mosquitoes; and 

 the name is often applied to certain insects 

 to which it does not really belong, as the 

 dragon fly and the May fly. But there is one 

 true fly which is so common all about the 

 haunts of man that it has received the name 

 of domestic fly, or house fly, and it is this 

 little creature which is meant when the term 

 fly is used without modification. 



Life History. There are some very inter- 

 esting things about the house fly. Every child 

 has watched with wonder its progress across 

 the ceiling, to which it is held by the sucker- 

 like hairs on its feet; but nothing about it is 



EGGS OF A FLY 

 Greatly enlarged. 



more remarkable than the amazing rapidity 

 with which it breeds. If there were alive in 

 the world at the beginning of April but one 

 fly, and that an egg-laying female, there might 

 be six months later, if all the eggs laid came 

 to maturity, no fewer than 131,220,000,000,000,- 

 000,000 flies over 131 quintillions of descend- 

 ants of that one first fly! What wonder is it 

 that a neighborhood which seemed free from 

 flies may in a week or two be swarming with 

 them! 



The female lays her eggs in any warm, damp, 

 decaying matter, whether it be the manure of 

 a stable, the filth of a pig's pen or the fer- 

 menting garbage; and there the little white 

 maggots are hatched out. Soon these change 



