The Life of the Fly 



last precaution for the final deliverance. A 

 fixed support is, in fact, indispensable to the 

 Anthrax for issuing from her horny sheath, 

 unfurling her great wings and extricating her 

 slender legs from their scabbards. All this 

 very delicate work would be endangered by 

 any lack of steadiness. 



The pupa, therefore, remains fixed by the 

 graters of its back in the narrow exit-gallery 

 and thus supplies the stable equilibrium es- 

 sential to the new birth. All is ready. It is 

 time now for the great act. A transversal 

 cleft makes its appearance on the forehead, at 

 the bottom of the perforating diadem; a se- 

 cond, but longitudinal slit divides the skull in 

 two and extends down the thorax. Through 

 this cross-shaped opening, the Anthrax sud- 

 denly appears, all moist with the humours of 

 life's laboratory. She steadies herself upon 

 her trembling legs, dries her wings and takes 

 to flight, leaving at the window of the cell her 

 nymphal slough, which keeps intact for a very 

 long period. The sad-coloured Fly has five or 

 six weeks before her, wherein to explore the 

 clay nests amid the thyme and to take her 

 small share of the joys of life. In July, we 

 shall see her once more, busy this time with the 

 entrance into the cell, which is even stranger 

 than the exit. 62 



