144 



JOUENAIi OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ Angust 24, 1871. 



ears by his hum, which some people think melodious — if they 

 really do, I wish I had their ears — he flies at you desperately, 

 and settles upon you in order that he may regale himself upon 

 the moisture exuded from your skin. Why, the other morn- 

 ing, reader, a friend of mine lying half awake, engaged in a 

 philosophical meditation, had to lift himself up eight times to 

 chase oB a detei mined fellow, who settled thus repeatedly, 

 though driven off again and again ; and at last, the sufferer 

 having got up in despair, no sooner did the Bluebottle ascer- 

 tain this fact than he took himself off to the ceiling, and 

 " pitched " there, looking down serenely as if to say, " Now I 

 have made you move at last, and, what's more, I have got to a 

 position of security." I believe the first impulse in my friend's 

 breast was to send to the lower regions of his house for a ladder 

 which would enable him to reach the ceiling, and destroy bis 

 malicious though paltry foe, but, on reflection, he calmed down 

 and consoled himself in a philosophical manner, allowing the 

 Bluebottle to escape with a seeming triumph. 



Behold the Bluebottles in the garden. If they are at home 

 in the house, they are quite as much at their ease when they 

 rove from one spot to another, regaling themselves upon fruit, 

 and buzzing also in swarms about the flower parterres. With 

 the ripening of Gooseberries and Currants we find attendant 

 Bluebottles prepared to take their share of the produce. Straw- 

 berries and Easpberries they also affect ; not, as I have noticed, 

 so frequently meddling with the first of these, but the grand 

 harvest of these insects is at the time of the maturing of Plums, 

 Cherries, and wall fruit generally. " There's always something 

 to be got about a garden " is their motto ; and when other 

 supplies fail Apples and Pears still remain, and late-ripeniug 

 Grapes, on the strength of which the Bluebottle prepares for its 

 hybernation, or at least this seems to be the case with a moiety 

 of the species. Individuals hide away in nooks and crannies 

 ■when winter has fairly set in, and occasionally a party of Blue- 

 bottles will be found repOEing in company. A gentleman, 

 having climbed a disused telegraph pole, shook out from a cavity 

 in the upper portion dozens of these in a state of torpidity. 



Another name given to the species before us (Calliphora 

 vomitoria) — namely, the Flesh or Blow-fly, reminds us that it is 

 one out of many species of the Dipterous order, which deposit 

 their ova on meat. It is certainly not an agreeable idea, yet it 

 is one which will suggest itself when we see a swarm of these 

 insects buzzing about and settling upon fruit, that it is almost 

 certain they have recently paid visits to animal matter in a 

 state of putridity or nearly so. Flies are tolerably particular 

 in cleaning themselves, but still we might, did the choice rest 

 with us, decidedly wish that they should not approach us, or 

 our garden produce, too soon after they had been engaged in 

 the work of preparing for the continuance of their species. 

 And, indeed, it has been suggested by some, that it is possible 

 such insects may be the means of propagating contagion by 

 carrying poisonous matter on their limbs or jaws from one 

 object to another — a theory which is clever, perhaps plausible, 

 yet one which I c a i scarcely receive as true. 



The number of eggs deposited by the common Bluebottle is 

 about two hundred, and it the weather is tolerably warm, the 

 young larviE emerge the same day. Unlike the majority of 

 larval, which seem to require oecasional intervals of quietude 

 to assist digestion, these meat-eating individuals proceed with- 

 out interruption, unless from external causes, and are, it is 

 said, adult within the week. From the experiments of Eedi, 

 their increase of weight appears to be sometimes as much as 

 two hundred-fold in the course of twenty- four hours. Accord- 

 ing to the wiiting^ of some of our entomological authors. Blue- 

 bottle larvfe, when desirous of becoming pupa;, quit their food 

 and seek a retreat in the ground. This must, however, depend 

 npon circumstances, for it is evident that as their powers of 

 locomotion are very moderate, getting to earth may prove a 

 very troublesome job — at least, I have noticed places where, 

 doubtless, such larvie obtain their favourite conditions, but in 

 which earth is not to be found, and from whence I have not 

 seen them performing migrations in search of it. I assume, 

 therefore, that the pupns are attached to any convenient object, 

 though, should the carcase on which the larva; have preyed be 

 resting on the ground, they would descend there. 



Our mioroscopists, to illustrate the anatomy of this species, 

 usually prepare a series of ten or a dozen slides, and the most 

 interesting of these is one showing the proboscis and lancets. 

 This proboscis is retractile, and composed of two parts, its 

 opening having two thick lips, and in these are a number of 

 channels. As the fly is seen to bring these lips into close 

 contact with any matter which it wishes to draw into the pro- 



boscis, while at the same time the pliant part is moved in a 

 variety of ways, there is no doubt it is by the principle of 

 suction that the food is taken up. It is a frequent supposition 

 that " flies bite " in warm weather, when they settle upon the 

 human skin, the fact being, I suppose, that the exhaustion of 

 the air by the application of the proboscis of the insect occa- 

 sions an irritation for the moment, though it is possible Blue- 

 bottles may actually make at times an incision, for there is 

 enclosed in a case a lancet which is used to pierce the skin oS 

 fruits, &c. 



The practical man will ask, " How can these insects be de- 

 stroyed, and their injurious attacks prevented ?" This is not 

 easily answered. Bluebottles are not to be frightened off, they 

 spurn the enticements of " fly papers," and though they may 

 be beguiled by some sweet and odoriferous compounds, and 

 thus drowned or poisoned, it is doubtful whether we do not 

 draw an additional number which would not otherwise visit us, 

 almost equivalent to those we kill. The removal or the deep 

 interment of any animal substances to which these flies would 

 be likely to resort is an important particular often overlooked. 

 In one or two summers, when engaged in " sugaring for 

 moths," by applying a syrup to the trunks of trees in my 

 garden, I had the satisfaction of feeling that though my cap- 

 tures were not extensive, I was doing indirectly an act of kind- 

 ness to my neighbours. Throughout the day hosts of flies re- 

 sorted to the sugared trees, to feast upon what the moths had 

 left, and other gardens must have been thereby benefited. It 

 is noticeable that the ordinary garden spidtrs very rarely 

 succeed in capturing these boisterous insects, which soon dis- 

 entangle themselves from their meshes. 



One of the earliest moths which we see about, not on the 

 wing, but more generally at rest, or slowly crawling up a tree, 



is the Brindled Beauty 

 (Biston hirtarius), and 

 putting in an appear- 

 ance as they do, about 

 our London parks and 

 squares, just as the 

 Cuckoo reaches our 

 shores, we might style it 

 a "harbinger of spring." 

 Just now, however, we 

 shall detect it without 

 much difficulty in the 

 larval stage. The species 

 is a singular one altogether, for though the caterpillar is a de- 

 cided " looper " (or ground-measurer), and belongs, therefore, 

 to the Geometrine family, there is much in the structure of 

 this moth and a few others allied to it, which seems to connect 

 them with the family of the Bombyces, of which the Silkworm 

 Moth (B. Mori) is a well-known example. The imago of the 

 Brindled Beauty usually emerges from the pupa or chrysalis 

 state between the hours of 10 and 12 a.m., and in the afternoon 

 on mild April days some dozens may be taken off the trunk oi 

 a single tree, and the female individuals are then probably 

 busily engaged in depositing clusters of their green eggs, which 

 are small in proportion, in the clefts of the bark. So strongly 

 is this habit implanted in them, that they can hardly be in- 

 duced to part with them otherwise. To reduce the number of 

 the caterpillars by anticipation, there can be no better way 

 than to knock the moths off the trees. It is rather a mys- 

 tery how the young caterpillars, hatched as they often are, at 

 a time when cutting winds prevail, manage to climb from the 

 bark to the twigs ; but at least a good proportion survive the 

 perils of early caterpillar life, judging from the abundance of 

 the species where it occurs, though in some parts of England it 

 is unknown. The small sooty-coloured caterpillar at first gives 

 little indication of the size it is to attain, and the appearance 

 it is to present, and frequently it grows but slowly until the 

 July warmth hastens it on. The arrangement of colours is 

 curious ; the ground colour of two shades of brown is broken 

 into regular portions by black lines, there is a yellow ring 

 behind the head, and yellow spots on the back and sides. By 

 the paved roadsides these caterpillars are often found feeding 

 on the Lime and Elm, and the stones beneath are very ob- 

 servably discoloured for some distance by the copious ex- 

 cretions of the individuals resting on the overhanging boughs. 

 In gardens and orchards they resort to the Plum and Pear, ami 

 the la;tter especially is defoliated by them in some seasons. 

 The pupa may be destroyed in autumn or winter by digging 

 round the trees, as they are easily detected. 

 Going into an outhouse or greenhouse at early morning thei 



Biston hirtnrius. 



