. Elementary entomology. Entomology. Fig. 369. Rat-tailed maggot, larva of a syrphid fly similar to Fig. 368. (Twice natural size) (After Kellogg) among colonies of plant-lice, around which the flies may be seen hovering, and the maggots devour the aphides greedily, being among their most important natural enemies. Some of the larger species are thickly covered with yellow and black hairs, thus closely resembling bumble-bees, in whose nests their larvae reside. A common species which is often found on windows in fall is known as the drone-fly, from its close resemblance to a honey-bee drone. I
. Elementary entomology. Entomology. Fig. 369. Rat-tailed maggot, larva of a syrphid fly similar to Fig. 368. (Twice natural size) (After Kellogg) among colonies of plant-lice, around which the flies may be seen hovering, and the maggots devour the aphides greedily, being among their most important natural enemies. Some of the larger species are thickly covered with yellow and black hairs, thus closely resembling bumble-bees, in whose nests their larvae reside. A common species which is often found on windows in fall is known as the drone-fly, from its close resemblance to a honey-bee drone. Its lar- va lives in foul water and excrement, and is typical of a group which is often found in privies and similar filth. The larva is maggotlike in shape but has a long, extensile tube, through which it breathes, projecting from the tip of the abdomen to the surface of the food- material, which has given it the name of " rat-tailed ; None of the family seems to be injurious, and those larvae which feed on plant-lice are exceed- ingly beneficial. Bot-flies (Oestridae). Another family in which the flies are well covered with hairs, so as to closely resemble bees, is that of the bot-flies, whose maggots are among the worst insect parasites of domestic animals. The adults have xev)' rudimentary mouth- parts, so that they probably take no food. The eggs are usually laid on the hair of various animals, from which they are licked off and pass into the alimentary tract, though others lay them upon the lips or in the nostrils of the host. Among the more common are the horse bot-fly, which gives rise to the bots in the stomach of the horse, the ox-warble fly, whose maggots pass from the stomach through the tissues of cattle and finally emerge through holes in the skin, causing " grubby " hides, and the sheep bot-fly,. Fig. 370. A syrphus-fly (J'olucella erecta) which resembles a bumble-tee and is an inquiline in bumble-bees' nests (after S. J. Hunter); and a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1912
