TWO -WINGED INSECTS 
335 
blood which remains in the spot ; but this is a trouble- 
some task when one has several hundred punctures in 
the course of a day [like Prince Siror, in one of Bulwer 
Lytton’s stories, who fell “ pierced by five hundred 
spears”]. I took the trouble to dissect specimens, to 
ascertain the way in which the little pests operate. The 
mouth consists of a pair of thick fleshy lips, and two 
triangular horny lancets, answering to the upper lip and 
tongue of other insects. This is applied closely to the 
skin, a puncture is made with the lancets, and the blood 
then sucked through between these into the oesophagus, 
the circular spot which results coinciding with the 
shape of the lips. In the course of a few days the red spots dry up, and the skin in time 
becomes blackened with the endless number of discoloured punctures that are crowded together. 
The irritation they produce is more acutely felt by some persons than others. I once traveled 
with a middle-aged Portuguese who was laid up for three weeks from the attacks of Pium, his 
legs being swelled to an enormous size, and the punctures aggravated into spreading sores.” 
However, the traveler in Amazonia has one consolation : the great rivers which traverse 
the forests are of three different colours; and the black-water rivers — so called from the dark 
colour of the water, owing apparently to the amount of vegetable matter which they hold m 
solution — are never infested with mosquitoes. Probably the character of the water renders it 
unsuitable to them for breeding purposes. 
The Crane-flies, or Daddy-long-legs, are also very injurious insects, but in a different 
manner, for their subterranean maggots feed on and destroy the roots of grass in the same 
way as the grubs of the Cockchafers. They are insects of considerable size, with slender bodies, 
terminating in a short, horny point (the ovipositer) in the female, and with long, slender legs, 
which are liable to break off at the least touch. The commonest species has a grey body and 
transparent wings; but there is a larger one with the wings prettily variegated with brown, 
and a smaller one in which there are yellow markings towards the end of the body. 
The more typical Flies have usually shorter and broader wings, and thicker, shorter, and 
more hairy legs, than those just mentioned ; and the antennae have usually only three or four 
joints, and are often furnished with a long, slender bristle at or before the end of the last joint. 
As in the case of the Gnats and Crane-flies, so as regards the more typical Flies, we have 
only space to notice a few of the more important families. 
Some of the Gad-FLIES are no larger than hou.se-flies, but others are as large as wasps or 
larger, with broader wings, and of a black, grey, or yellowish colour; they frequent fields, and 
settle on cattle, or on our clothes or hands. Some have transparent and others dark-coloured 
wings, but they are all capable of inflicting a severe puncture, often sufficient to draw blood, 
even in the case of the smaller species. 
The prettiest of the gad-flies are the Golden-eyed Flies. 
They are black, with the abdomen more or less marked with 
yellow; and black, or black and transparent, wings. The eyes 
are of a beautiful golden green, dotted and lined with purple. 
They are moderately stout insects, about the third of an inch 
long, and are not uncommon. Another insect, known as the 
Blood-sucking Rain-fly, has a rather long and slender body 
for a gad-fly, and is nearly half an inch long. It is of a 
lighter or darker grey, with reddish markings on the sides of 
the abdomen in the male. The wings are greyish brown with 
whitish dots, and a white mark towards the tip. Both these 
flies are very troublesome, the latter chiefly on the edges of 
woods or near water, especially in rainy weather. 
i ■ . .■■■■ ■■ ■ 
Phtu hy W. P. Dando, F.Z.S. 
BLUE-BOTTLE FLY, OR 
BLOW-FLY 
These Jlies deposit their eggs on meat, 
when It becomes ^'Jiy-blown " 
Photo by Ifr. P. Dando, F.Z.S 
HOUSE-FLY (MALE AND FEMALE) 
The lawa of the house-fly live in refuse, so do not 
thrive where cleanliness abounds 
