CHAPTER III. 



HOUSE FLIES, CENTIPEDES, AND OTHER INSECTS THAT ARE 

 ANNOYING RATHER THAN DIRECTLY INJURIOUS. 



By T,. o. Howard and C. L. Maklatt. 



HOUSE FLIES. 



(Musca domestic^,, et al. 



Iii common parlance there is but one house fly, although a number of 

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

 annoyance. The most abundant form is the house fly proper (Musca 

 dont est tea 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. VA.— Jfc*Trt domeetica: a, adult male; h. proboscis and palpus of same; <•. terminal joints of 

 antennae; <!, head of female; e t pupariuni;/, 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 dov* occasionally bite. This impression is 

 due to the frequent occurrence in houses of another fly (Stomoxys 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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