INSECTS AND WAR 31 



greater than ever human beings undergo at 

 the time of puberty. Many of its organs are 

 disintegrated and re-formed, and in the course 

 of three or four days the white, legless, repellent 

 maggot, who " loves darkness rather than light/' 

 is changed into the lively, flying insect, seeking 

 " a place in the sun " and the companionship 

 of man. As the Frenchman said of the pig 

 which goes into one end of the machine in the 

 Chicago meat-factory as live pig and comes 

 out at the other end in the form of sausages, 

 " // est didblement change en route." 



In a very short time after leaving the pupa- 

 case the adult fly has stretched her wings, the 

 chitin of her body has hardened, and she flies 

 away " on her several occasions." 



Flies become sexually mature in a week or 

 ten days after emerging from the chrysalis-case, 

 and are capable of depositing their eggs four 

 days after mating, so that if the conditions be 

 indeed favourable the whole development from 

 the egg to the perfect fly may be accomplished 

 in nine or ten days, and the second generations 

 are able to lay their eggs ten days later. The 

 appalling fecundity of such an insect explains 

 the fact that in the hotter parts of the world 



