The Grey Flesh-Flies 



There is here a sudden breaking-off, hollowed 

 into a deep cup. At the bottom of this crater 

 are two breathing-holes, two stigmata with 

 amber-red tips. The edge of the cavity is 

 fringed with half a score of pointed, fleshy 

 festoons, which diverge like the spikes of a 

 coronet. The creature can close or open this 

 diadem at will by bringing the denticulations 

 together or by spreading them out wide. This 

 protects the air-holes which might otherwise 

 be choked up when the maggot disappears in 

 the sea of broth. Asphyxia would supervene, 

 if the two breathing-holes at the back became 

 obstructed. During the immersion, the fes- 

 tooned coronet shuts like a flower closing its 

 petals and the liquid is not admitted to the 

 cavity. 



Next follows the emergence. The hind-part 

 reappears in the air, but appears alone, just at 

 the level of the fluid. Then the coronet 

 spreads out afresh, the cup gapes and assumes 

 the aspect of a tiny flower, with the white 

 denticulations for petals and the two bright 

 red dots, the stigmata at the bottom, for 

 stamens. When the grubs, pressed one against 

 the other, with their heads downwards in the 

 fetid soup, make an unbroken shoal, the sight 

 of those breathing-cups incessantly opening 



239 



