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A CHAPTER ON FLIES. 643 
We have also figured and mentioned previously (page 197) 
the Bee-louse, Braula, another wingless spider-like fly. 
The Flea is also a wingless fly, and is probably, as has 
been suggested by an eminent entomologist, as Baron 
Osten Sacken informs us, a degraded genus of the family 
to which Mycetobia belongs. Its transformations are very 
unlike those of the fly-ticks, and agree closely with the 
early stages of Mycetophila, one of the Tipulid family. In 
its adult condition the flea combines the characters of the 
Diptera, with certain features of the grasshoppers and cock- 
roaches (Orthoptera), and the bugs (Hemiptera). The body 
of the human flea (Pl. 13, fig. 13, greatly magnified ; a, an- 
tenne; b, maxille, and their palpi, c; d, mandibles; the 
latter, with the labium, which is not shown in the figure, 
forming the acute beak) is much compressed, and there are 
minute wing-pads, instead of wings, present in some species. 
Dr. G. A. Perkins, of Salem, has succeeded in rearing 
in considerable numbers from the eggs, the larvæ of a flea 
which lives upon the cat. The larve (PI. 13, fig. 9, much 
enlarged; a, antenna ; b, the terminal segments of the ab- 
domen), when hatched, are .05 of an inch long. The body 
is long, cylindrical, and pure white, with thirteen segments 
exclusive of the head, and provided with rather long hairs. 
It is very active in its movements, and lives on decaying 
animal and vegetable matter, remaining on unswept floors 
of out-houses, or in the straw or bed of the animals they in- 
fest. In a few days after leaving the egg the larve mature, 
spin a rude cocoon, and change to pupæ, and the perfect in- 
sects appear in about ten days. 
A practical point is how to rid dogs of fleas. As a pre- 
ventive measure, we would suggest the frequent sweeping 
and cleansing of the floors of their kennels, and renewing the 
straw or chips composing their beds,—chips being the best 
material for them to sleep upon. Flea-afflicted dogs should 
be washed every few days in -strong soapsuds, or weak 
| ~ tobacco or petroleum water. A writer in “Science-Gossip” 
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