TWO-WINGED INSECTS 
337 
of the head golden yellow in the male ; the wings are transparent, slightly tinged with pale 
brown, and bright rusty yellow towards the base. 
The African Tsetse-FLY is not very unlike a house-fly, and is one of the worst pests to 
cattle in those parts of Africa which It infests; for any horse, ox, or dog attacked by it will 
infallibly die after a longer or shorter period of suffering, though wild animals and sucking 
calves are not affected by it. It used to be supposed that the fly itself infused some deadly 
venom with its puncture ; but later experiments have led naturalists to the conclusion that 
the fly is not itself poisonous, but that it forms the channel of communication of some fatal 
disease, just as some species of mosquitoes convey the infection of malaria. 
The Blow-flies, or Blue-bottles, of which there are several species closely allied to each 
other, are common in houses; and a smaller brilliant green fly, called the Green-BOTTLE Fly, 
is common on hedges. These are all flies which lay their eggs on fresh or putrid meat, when 
it is said to be “ fly-blown.” They will also lay their eggs 
in open sores; and in former days the sufferings of the 
wounded after a battle were often frightfully aggravated by 
this cause; and at the present day farmers would frequently 
lose sheep through their attacks, if they were not carefully 
tended in hot weather. 
Various species of flies in Eastern Europe, the Southern 
States of America, Jamaica, etc., habitually lay their eggs in 
the mouths or nostrils of men and animals, and the resulting 
maggots cause dreadful suffering and often death. In India, 
-and especially in the Eastern Archipelago, there are some 
brilliantly coloured, smooth, metallic blue and green flies as 
big as humble-bees. There is also a family of flies allied to 
the house-fly, which have very bristly bodies, and are parasitic 
on caterpillars, like ichneumon-flies. 
There are other flies which easily 
attract attention, such as the yellow 
hairy fly found about cow-dung, and 
some rather small species with 
prettily variegated wings, which feed 
on flowers or fruit. The cheese- 
hoppers are also the maggots of a 
small black fly. 
Besides these, there are some 
aberrant parasitic families of flies 
with long, hairy legs, and only one 
or two joints to the antennae. These 
are the Forest-flies and Bird- 
FLIES, which attack horses and birds ; 
and also some wingless insects, such 
as the so-called Sheep-TICK (easily 
distinguished from a true tick by 
possessing only six legs), the 
Bee-parasites, and the spider-like Bat- parasites. This parasitic group is also remarkable for 
depositing full-grown larv« or pup^ instead of eggs. 
The Fleas are a small group of small wingless insects, with such powers of leaping that 
it has been said that if a man was as agile as a flea he could jump over the dome of 
St. Paul’s. The larvs of fleas are small, worm-like creatures, with bristles, but without legs ; 
they probably live on any sort of animal or vegetable refuse. They subsequently change to pupae 
ill small cocoons, and emerge as perfect fleas, which live by sucking the blood of warm-blooded 
Phns by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S, 
TSETSE-FLY (ENLARGED) 
Showing the proboscis and -veining of the wings more distinctly 
Photo by IV. P. Dando, F.Z.S. 
TSETSE-FLY 
Destructi've to horses and cattle in Africa 
