Guide to the study of insects and a treatise on those injurious and beneficial to crops, for the use of colleges, farm-schools, and agriculturists . ^, Musca domestica Linn., is common in thewarmer parts of the 3ear, and hibernates through the winter. Astudy of the proboscis of the fly reveals a wonderful adaptabilityof tlie mouth-parts of this insect to their uses. We have alreadynoticed the most perfect condition of these parts as seen in thehorse-fly. In the proboscis of the house-fly the hard parts areobsolete, and instead we have a fleshy tongue-like organ (), bent up underneath th
Guide to the study of insects and a treatise on those injurious and beneficial to crops, for the use of colleges, farm-schools, and agriculturists . ^, Musca domestica Linn., is common in thewarmer parts of the 3ear, and hibernates through the winter. Astudy of the proboscis of the fly reveals a wonderful adaptabilityof tlie mouth-parts of this insect to their uses. We have alreadynoticed the most perfect condition of these parts as seen in thehorse-fly. In the proboscis of the house-fly the hard parts areobsolete, and instead we have a fleshy tongue-like organ (), bent up underneath the head when at rest. The maxillae-are minute, and the palpi {mp) are single-jointed, and the man-dibles (m) are comi)aratively useless, being very short andsmall compared with the lancet-like jaws of the mosquito orhorse-fly. But the structure of the tongue itself (labium, I) is. 410 LIPTERA. of our books,scraping off most curious. When the fly settles upon a himp of sugar orother sweet object, it unbends its tongue, extends it, and thebroad knob-like end divides into two flat, muscular leaves (/),which thus present a sucker-like surface, with which the flylaps up liquid sweets. These two leaves are supported iipon aframework of chitinous rods, which act as a set of springs toopen and shut the muscular leaves. The inside of this broadfleshy expansion is rough like a rasp, and as Newport states,is easily employed by tlie insect in scrajDing or tearingdelicate surfaces. It is by means of this curious structurethat the busy house-fly occasions much mischief to the covers by thealbuminous polish,and leaving trac-ings of its depre-dations in the soil-ed and spotted ap-pearance which itoccasions on house-flybreeds in Augustabout stables. TheFjc. 331. eggs are deposited in horse-dung. The larva (Fig. 331*) hatches twenty-fourhours after the eggs are laid ; i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublishe, booksubjectinsects
