532 THE COMMON-FLESH FLY HESSIAN FLY CHEESE-FLY. 



taken out of home-made wines. He says that many have recovered, 

 after having been twelve months immersed. 



THE COMMON FLESH-FLY. 



It is a fact not generally known, that this is a viviparous insect, de- 

 positing its offspring, in a living state, on the meat in our shambles 

 and larders. The young-ones appear under the same worm-like form, 

 as the grubs produced from the Blue Flesh-fly. They feed as those do, 

 increase in size, undergo all their transformations in the same manner, 

 and even in the fly -state appear but little different 



THE HESSIAN FLY. 



Among the various causes of alarm experienced Ly the farmer ia 

 the course of his rural labors, few are more powerful, though many 

 more justly so, than the larvae or grubs of this little fly. These are 

 lodged and nourished within the stems of wheat and rye, just above 

 the root, which they entirely destroy. 



THE CHEESE-FLY. 



The larvae of these flies are the troublesome maggots found in 

 cheese, and so well known to housewives under the name of Hoppers. 

 They proceed from eggs deposited in the crevices or holes of the 

 cheese by the parent fly. 



This maggot is surprisingly strong and vigorous, and, when disturbed 

 leaps to a considerable distance. To do this, it erects itself on its tail, 

 and, bending its head into a circle, fixes two black claws, which are 

 situated at the end of the tail into two cavities formed for their recep- 

 tion at the back of the head. It then exerts its muscular powers, and, 

 in suddenly extending its body, throws itself, for its size, to a vast dis- 

 tance. One of these insects, which was not the fourth of an inch long, 

 has been known to leap thus, out of a box six inches deep, or to 

 twenty -four times its own length. 



OF THE TABANUS, OR WHAME-FLY TRIBE. 



THE insects of the present tribe subsist on the blood of animals, 

 which they suck with great avidity, by means of their proboscis. 

 They are chiefly active during the hottest weather of summer. In 

 most^of the species the eyes are beautifully colored. Wet meadows 

 and moist woods are the places in which they principally abound 

 The T irvce of some of the sDecies live underground. 



