How Flies. Climb.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2975, 13 August 1888, Page 2

How Flies. Climb.

Very interesting fuels on the above subject were" recently contributed to • > the Berlin Society of Natural History 5 by Herr H. Dwitz, which go far to • prove that tlie feet of flies cannot possess the sucking properties ascribed to them, for they are bard and destitute of muscles. A: longtime ago Black-well-contradicted this theory, and maintained that the powor of adherence .was due to a stioky matter secreted from the foot-hairsof the fly. This theory was pronounced 1101 proved, Dewitz, after careful experiments, shows that Blackwelhvas right. He watched the oxudation of the sticky matter from the feet of a fly, by fastenin!; one to the under side of a piece otl glass, and examining it through a mioroscope. A perfectly clear liquid was seen to flow from tho ends of the \ foot-hairs, and to attach the fool tiv the glass. When the foot was lifte!* up to bo put down in another place, the drops of sticky matter weie loft upon the glass exactly on the spot where the foot-hairs rested. Loibce* discovered cortain glands in tho folds of the foot in 1850, and from them the adhesive fluid appears to flow down trough the hollow of the hair. A similar adhesive {fluid appears to be possessed by bugs, many larvro, and probably by all insects which olimb the undersides of leaves of trees and plants.