i2 4 DRAGONFLIES AND OTHERS 



by a sense of human impotence in a contest 

 with plagues of this sort, when they per- 

 sonified and worshipped the destroyer of 

 flies under the name of Beelzebub, the Lord 

 of the Fly. We are happy, in so far as we 

 need wage no real war with our Diptera. 

 They annoy us, but we do not fear them. 

 Their great number and variety, however, 

 make them a difficult Order to observe and 

 classify; but, thanks to the energy of many 

 workers, the difficulties are being surmounted, 

 and in a few years we may hope to have a 

 catalogue of British Flies as complete as that 

 of any other division of insects. 



Students are most at fault in studying the 

 life history of the species. Flies spend their 

 larval stage in places and under circumstances 

 so different from those in which they pass 

 their existence in their perfect state, that it 

 is exceedingly difficult to connect the two 

 conditions. Consequently, there are many 

 species as to which at present we know 

 absolutely nothing, until they appear as fully 

 developed flies. There is one point in their 

 development in which they stand practically 

 alone amongst insects they are furnished 



