FLOWER-FLIES. 
615 
appear in houses in July, becomes exceedingly aoundant 
in September, and does not disappear till killed by cold 
weather. It is probable that, like the domestic fly of Europe, 
it lays its eggs in dung, in which its larvae live, and pass 
through their changes of form. The Americans are accused 
of carelessness in regard to flies, and apparently with some 
reason. But if these filthy, dung-bred creatures swarm 
in some houses, covering every article of food by day, and 
absolutely blackening the walls by night, in others com- 
paratively few are found ; for the tidy housekeeper takes 
care not to leave food of any kind standing about, uncovered, 
to entice them in, and makes a business of driving out the 
intruders at least once a day. If a plateful of strong green 
tea, well sweetened, be placed in an outer apartment acces- 
sible to flies, they will taste of it, and be killed thereby, as 
surely as by the most approved fly-poison. In the first 
volume of “ The Transactions of the Entomological Society 
of London,” Mr. Spence gives an account of a mode of ex- 
cluding flies from apartments, which has been tried with 
complete success in England. It consists of netting, made of 
fine worsted or thread, in large meshes, or of threads alone, 
half an inch or more apart, stretched across the windows. 
It appears that the flics will not attempt to pass through 
the meshes, or between the threads, into a room which is 
lighted only on one side ; but if there are windows on another 
side of the room they will then fly through ; such windows 
should therefore be darkened with shutters or thick curtains. 
The Anthomyians, or flower-flies (Antiiomyiad.e), are 
easily distinguished from the preceding flies, which they 
otherwise resemble, by the smaller size of their winglets, 
and by the mesh in the middle of their wings, which is 
long, narrow, and open at the end. They are smaller in- 
sects than the foregoing, their flight is more feeble, their 
wings, when at rest, do not spread so much, and the bristle 
on the last joint of their antennae is not often feathered. 
Most of them frequent flowers, and are sometimes seen 
