432 T*HE HESSIAN FLY i 



balancers under its wings are whitish, and its reti- 

 cular eyes somewat red. 



It is a fact not generally known that this is a vivi- 

 parous insect, depositing its young in a living state on 

 the meat in our shambles and larders. These young 

 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 

 very little different. It appears that the eggs of this 

 fly are extruded from the uterus into the cavity of 

 the abdomen, and there undergo their first change, 

 differing in this respect from most others of the in- 

 sect tribes. 



When the worms have attained their full size 

 (which is generally in seven or eight days) they quit 

 their food, and go in search of some loose earth, in 

 which they bury themselves and undergo their me- 

 tamorphosis. 



Some others of the flies are also viviparous. 



■THE HESSIAN FLY*? 



Among the various causes of alarm experienced 

 by the farmer in the course of his rural labours, few 

 are more powerful, though many more justly so, 

 than the larva? or grubs of this little fly. These are 

 lodged and nourished in the very heart of the stems 

 of wheat and rye, just above the root, which by 

 their voracity they entirely destroy. 



* Musca Pumilionls. Linn. 



