CHAPTER TIT. 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS THAT ARE 

 ANNOYING RATHER THAN DIRECTLY INJURIOUS. 



By L. O. Howard and C. L. Maklatt. 

 HOUSE FLIES. 



{Mnsca domentiai, et ah) 



In common parlance there is but one house fly, althougli a number of 

 species are in the habit of entering houses and cause more or less 

 annoytmce. The most abundant form is the house fly proper {Mu^ca 

 domestica Linn.). It is a medium-sized, grayish fly, with its mouth 

 parts spread out at the tip for sucking up liquid substances. It breeds 

 in manure and dooryard filth and is found in nearly all parts of the 



Fig. Vi.—Musca domestica: o, adult male; h, proboscis and palpus of same; c, terminal .joints of 

 antennae ; d, liuad <it' female; e, pupariiim ; /, anterior spiracle— all enlarged (original). 



world. On account of the conformation of its mouth parts, the house 

 fly can not bite, yet no impression is stronger in the minds of most 

 people than that this insect does occasionally bite. This impression is 

 due to the frequent occurrence in houses of another fly [Stomo.viis calci- 

 trans), which may be called the stable fly, and which, while closely 

 resembling the house fly (so closely, in fact, as to deceive anyone but an 



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