INSECTS MOLESTING FARM ANIMALS 275 
flies. The black-flies are the daylight pests of early summer, 
and ere they are gone, the horse-flies and deer-flies are at 
hand to remain through midsummer; also the bot-flies; 
which, though they do not bother us, are aggravating to live 
stock beyond all proportion to their number and size. 
All these transient pests are two-winged flies (members 
of the order Diptera), belonging to a very few families. In 
all of them, the larvae live in situations very different from 
those of the adults. The larvae 
of the blood-sucking flies—black- 
flies and mosquitos and horse-flies 
—are mostly aquatic. The young 
of the bot-flies are parasitic in the 
bodies of animals. In all of them, 
it is the females that pester the 
live stock, the blood-sucking flies 
by biting, and the bot-flies by the 
aoe operations attendant upon laying 
their eggs. 
The mosquitos represent the 
4 4 best-known of these families 
cca < (Culicidae). These do most to 
make the night interesting. They 
= have a soft little hum that 
+ +4 probably would be counted among 
i ay the sweet sounds of nature, were 
it not accompanied by so strong 
‘A an appetite for blood. They come 
=lE earliest in the springand stay latest 
in the fall. They breed in stand- 
ing water—especially in shallow 
Hi and temporary pools. Rain- 
Fie. 116. Larva of the mosquito Water barrels, and even tin 
Ancphles punctipennis. (Drawn 
by Miss Cora A. Smith). cans cast upon a rubbish-heap 
