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PLATE XXXI. 



F I G. I. 



MUSCA CHAMiELEON. 



DiPTERA. 



Tv/o Wings. 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Mufca^ a foft flexible Ti unk with lateral Lips at the end. No palpi; 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER, 



Dark brown or black. Antennae taper, broken. Eyes large. Ab- 

 domen nearly circular, with three triangular yellow fpots on each Side, 

 and one at the extremity. 



Linnseus, in a former edition of the Fauna Suec'ica gave this infe^ 

 the name of Oejirus Aquce^ but he afterwaids difcovered it to be a 

 Mufca, and called it Mufca Chamaeleon. It is one of the mod com- 

 mon Dipterous, or two-winged Infc^ls we have; yet though fo well 

 known in its perfect Hate, few have attended fo minutely to its changes 

 as to difcover that j they form the moft fmgular part of its hiftory. — • 

 The female depofits her eggs in the hollow ftalks of aquatic plants, or 

 broken reeds, or fo provides for them that they cannot, but by fome 

 unforefeen accident, be carried away. The egg, in due time ripening, 

 produces a Larva, no way refembling the Parent, but rather a Worm 



M ^( 



