m 
DIPTEKA. 
The Blue-bottle (AT. vomitoria), so troublesome to 
housekeepers, more especially in hot sultry weather, 
by depositing its eggs (fly-blows) upon the joints 
of meat designed for the table, developes its pupae in 
the same manner as does the domestic house-fly. The 
flesh-fly (< Sarcopliaga ), with thorax and abdomen marked 
with rows of white stripes and spots, is viviparous in its 
mode of reproduction ; the eggs, which are developed 
within the body of the parent, are very large; they 
are arranged in a spiral form, resembling two white 
rows of ribbon. Reaumur calculated that one fly 
would produce 20,000 maggots ; it was this species 
to which Linneus referred when he said that these 
flies could eat an ox as fast as a lion could ! These 
all belong to the division of Calytera. 
The remaining fly (Scatojihaga stercoraria ), the 
Cow-dung-fly, belongs to the second division. Let no 
one despise this bright, active, yellow insect, which acts 
as a useful scavenger in removing offensive matter. 
Your approaching footsteps drives the living cluster all 
of a sudden away ‘'with mighty buzz and bustle,' J 
quickly however to return on your departure from the 
spot. The eggs of the Cow-dung-fly are deposited on* 
the dung on which the larvae feed. Rdaumur found 
that the eggs required to be immersed in the moist 
dung; that if they were not thus surrounded with mois¬ 
ture they shrivelled up and came to nothing ; it was 
equally necessary that the eggs should not be wholl} r 
covered, otherwise the young larvae would be suffocated 
at their first exit from the egg. In what way is this 
nice point secured ? In this manner. Each egg is pro¬ 
vided, near its upper end, at which the animal when 
