The Life of the Fly 



thing worth going for? The others, the real 

 knackers, wait for the meat to go bad; they 

 are informed by the strength of the effluvia. 

 The Ant, gifted with greater powers of 

 scent, hurries up before there is any stench 

 at all. But, when the meat, now two days 

 old and ripened by the sun, exhales its fla- 

 vour, soon the master-ghouls appear upon 

 the scene: Dermestes and Saprini, Silphae 

 and Necrophori, Flies and Staphylini, 1 who 

 attack the corpse, consume it and reduce it 

 almost to nothing. With the Ant alone, who 

 each time carries oft a mere atom, the sani- 

 tary operation would take too long; with 

 them, it is a quick business, especially as cert- 

 ain of them understand the process of chemi- 

 cal solvents. 



These last, who are high-class scavengers, 

 are entitled to first mention. They are Flies, 

 of many various species. If time permitted, 

 each of those strenuous ones would deserve a 

 special examination; but that would weary 

 the patience of both the reader and the ob- 

 server. The habits of one will give us a sum- 



'The Dermestes, or Bacon-beetle, is a small, the Sa- 

 prinus an exceedingly small, flesh-eating Beetle. The 

 Silpha is the Carrion-beetle proper; the Necrophorus, the 

 Burying-beetle proper. The Staphylinus, or Rove-beetle, 

 also lives partly upon decaying substances. — Translator's 

 Note. 



218 



