444 TROPICAL WILD LIFE IN BRITISH GUIANA 



the fruit, seldom clinging to the branches with other than 

 the hind legs. They ate with great relish and greed, pluck- 

 ing far more than they could possibly eat. Consequently 

 many nuts were dropped quite untouched, and wasted. Cur- 

 ious as to the quality of the fruit, I picked one up and split 

 it apart. To my surprise it contained eleven light yellow 

 maggots, that writhed about actively and tried to escape 

 from their late prison. They had eaten the soft pulp entirely 

 away, leaving only a mass of brown excretia and the inner 

 nut, which was free and rattled about when I replaced the 

 shell which had been cut away. Thus by chance I discovered 

 the subject of this chapter in its strange cradle among the 

 tree-tops, where it has doubtless fed in its larval state since 

 the first vermillion-nut blossomed in the branches of its 

 parent. This is a new species of fly belonging to the family, 

 Trepetidae and the genus Spilographa. 



When and how the mature insect deposits her eggs with- 

 in the nut is beyond me. It would be necessary to live in the 

 loftiest branches to ascertain such a fact. One glance at a 

 vermillion-nut tree would stand as evidence of its infeasibil- 

 ity. One thing we do know ; the insect is a fly, as shown by 

 the larva, a typical fly maggot, with eleven segments count- 

 ing the head. It tapers from a well rounded segment at the 

 posterior end, almost to a point at the head, which is sup- 

 plied with two hooks turned downwards like the claws of a 

 cat. It is transparent yellowish white and through its entire 

 body one may trace a pair of respiratory tubes with one set 

 of openings in the head and the other in the last segment of 

 the body. These orifices, two in front, two behind, stamp 

 the creature as a young or larval fly. 



The eggs are probably deposited when the fruit is still 

 soft and immature or perhaps the scent of the tree's blos- 

 soms beckon to the insect. I can but surmise. Later the 

 eggs give place to tiny wiggling larvae whose movements 

 depend upon contractions of their muscles, for they are de- 



