590 ‘A CHAPTER ON FLIES. 
house, where the windows actually swarmed with them; but 
_here they would fly in our face, crawl under one’s clothes, 
where they even remain and bite in the night. The children 
in the house were sickly and worn by their unceasing tor- 
ments; and the shaggy Newfoundland dogs, whose thick 
coats would seem to be proof against their bites, ran from 
their shelter beneath the bench and dashed into the river, 
their only retreat. In cloudy weather, unlike the mosquito, 
the black fly disappears, only flying when the sun shines. 
The bite of the black fly is often severe, the creature leaving 
a large clot of blood to mark the scene of its surgical tri- 
umphs. Mr. E. T. Cox, of New Harmony, Indiana, has 
sent us specimens of a much larger fly, which Baron Osten 
Sacken refers to this genus, which is called on the prairies, 
the Buffalo Gnat, where it is said to bite horses to death. 
Westwood states that an allied fly (Rhagis Columbaschensis 
Fabr.) is one of the greatest scourges of man and beast in 
Hungary, where it has been known to kill cattle. 
The Simulium molestum (Pl. 12, fig. 1, enlarged), as the 
black fly is called, lives during the larva state in the water. 
The larva of a Labrador species (Pl. 12, fig. 2, enlarged) 
which we found, is about a quarter of an inch long, and of 
the appearance here indicated. The pupa is also aquatic, 
having long respiratory filaments attached to each side of 
the front of the thorax, According to Westwood, “the pos 
terior part of its body is enclosed in a semioval membranous 
cocoon, which is at first formed by the larva, the anterior 
part of which is eaten away before changing to a pupa, ies 
as to be open in front. The imago is produced beneath the 
surface of the water, its fine silky covering serving to repel 
the action of the water.” 
Multitudes of a long slender white worm may often 0° 
found living in the dirt, and sour sap running from pris 
in the elm tree. Two summers ago we discovered some 0f 
these larve, and on rearing them found that they were à “a 
cies of Mycetobia (Pl. 12, fig. 3; a, larva; b, pupa). 
n be 
