FACTS ABOUT FLIES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 746, 19 February 1910, Page 13

FACTS ABOUT FLIES.

HOW THEY WALK ON THE CEILING. ■" At the London Institution recently, Mr. H. Hill, addressing a Juvenile audience, v gavo somo interesting information about "Plies." The house-fly, he said, bolonged to the highest group of tho two-winged fly, which, in its turn; , was tho . highest. and most numerous order of all insects. ; ■ He wondered whether, if it woro called the "Cholera Fly," or tho "Tuberculosis Ply," it would bo so weloomed; yet it had been proved beyond donbt that it conveycd cholera, diphthoria, and all sorts of ' diseases. Tho eggs of tho fly wore laid in decaying vegotablo matter, and if a house was in a filthy condition, the fly, could breed tlicro. They should remember: that. No filth, no. flies. The ily, as a fly,, nover grew. All its growth was done while it was a grub, and during its chrysalis stago there was.no addition to its weight, and when it nppeitred as a fly it was as large iis it over wo'ald be. Tho small flies seen in the summer' were not' young flies, but, flies which would never grow, any larger.

The fly' did not breathe through its mouth, . but'through holes, in its body. He went on to deal with the interesting question'of how.'tho fly waited oil the ceiling.' At the end of its t legs it TinH two small pads/- each -of which .-was provided with about 1200 minute hairs. The fly could send eniall,drops of gum down these ■ hairs, which .-were. really small'tubes, so that it;was practically, glued to the ceiling- .' As a rule tho gum remained moist while tho fly stayed there, but. instances havo been known in which the gum had got dry; and tho fly had had to break off its legs in order to get away. How was it, then, that a By could not walk down a milk; bowl without falling into the milk? As ; a matter of fact, a fly never did walk 'down a perfectly clean, smopth surface. They would nevor see a fly walk down a window pane if it was. clean. ' Yet, strangely, enough, the fly always rested with its head downwards, and if a fly was seen 'at rest with its head upwards, it was eithor dead or about to die.