Objects for the Microscope. 127 



seen edged with glandular hairs, open at the point, and 

 secreting a glutinous substance, which enables the fly to 

 attach itself firmly to glass or ceiling, whilst those two 

 strong hooks are used to detach it from the surface to which 

 it clings. 



The wing is next to be observed. It is the most im- 

 portant to the naturalist. Those small winglets at the base 

 are called the alulae ; they distinguish some families, and 

 generally cover and protect two small organs, the halteres, 

 supposed to be the seat of smell, described at page 142. 

 The wing itself consists of a double membrane, more or less 

 transparent, attached to nervures or veins, which are hollow- 

 tubes containing spiral air-vessels, communicating with the 

 spiracles or lungs in the trunk. This construction is won- 

 derful for lightness and for strength ; the larger and heavier 

 the body is, the more of these strengthening veins the wing 

 has. And as by breathing only these vessels are filled with 

 air, or some subtle fluid, the very act of flying may be but 

 the palpitating of a joyous little heart. We know that the 

 tracheae are filled with air, and that the dorsal vessel is in 

 truth the heart, sending forth streams of the life-blood 

 throughout the body and into the wings, as may be distinctly 

 seen in the transparent veins of a newly-hatched fly. 



But to learn the names of the nervures or veins of a fly, 

 a most useful lesson, no wing is better than this simple 

 one of the Dung-fly. That strong vein bordered with hairs 

 on the foreside is the costal vein ; it runs round the tip of 

 the wing, and ends where it meets the cubital vein. The 

 sub-costal is a pale short vein nearest to the fore-border, 

 and ending at one-third of its length. 



The mediastinal is the next and a stouter vein, ending at 

 beyond half the length of the wing. 



The radial forks at its base, and the farthest branch is 

 the cubital vein, joined to the prcebrachial vein by a clouded 

 transverse vein. 



The upper transverse vein, which unites the prcebrachial 

 to the pobrachial, is called the discal transverse. 



The membrane itself is exquisitely dotted with fine hairs, 

 and fringed all round with longer ones. 



