76 HOW ARE ANIMALS AND PLANTS DEPENDENT? 



Why does the house fly belong to the order of insects known 

 as Diptera? 



lay from one hun- 

 dred to two hundred 

 eggs. These are 

 usually deposited in 

 garbage or manure. 

 In warm weather, 

 within a day after 

 the eggs are laid, 

 the young maggots, 

 as the larvae are 

 called, hatch. After 

 about one week of 

 active feeding, these 

 wormlike maggots 

 become quiet and 

 go into the pupal stage, whence under favorable conditions they 

 emerge within less than another week as adult flies. The adults 

 breed at once, and in a short summer there may be over ten 

 generations of flies. This accounts for the great number of flies 

 in late summer. Fortunately few flies survive the winter. 



Practical Exercise 6. Discuss the fly problem as it exists in your commu- 

 nity. What steps might you take to abate the fly nuisance ? 



The life history of a beetle. The May beetle or June bug and 



potato beetle are examples of beetles. Many beetles lay their 



eggs in the ground, 



where they hatch 



into cream-colored 



grubs. A grub differs 



from the maggot or 



larva of the fly in 



possessing three pairs 



of legs. These grubs 



live in burrows in the 



ground, where they 



feed on the roots of 



grass and garden 



plants. The larval 



5 to 14 Act 



mcmtcrie necxp 



'to 



Compare the life history of the fly with that of the bumblebee. 



