An Elementary Study of Insects | Page 8

of it a strong hook. What are these used for? What are the sharp spines on the side of the hind-legs for? Examine the side of the body and see if you can find the small breathing pores. How do the legs join the body? Where are the wings attached? How broad are the wings as compared with the body? How are they folded? Are the two pairs of wings alike? Which is used most in flying? Is the head firmly attached to the body? Examine the large eyes; where are they found? Will grasshoppers bite you while handling them? What is the brown juice which escapes from the mouth when disturbed? How long are the feelers as compared with the body? Can you tell the males from the females? What is the distinction? Do they ever make music? Examine for all the foregoing points and write a brief report covering these. Make a careful drawing of a grasshopper from one side; also make an enlarged drawing of the face of a grasshopper and name the parts.
CHAPTER IV
THE HOUSE FLY OR TYPHOID FLY
In the house fly we find one of man's most deadly foes. War can not compare with the campaigns of disease and death waged by this most filthy of all insects. In our recent strife with Spain we lost a few lives in battle, but we lost many more in hospitals due to contagious diseases, in the transmission of which this pest played a most important part.
The fly is dangerous on account of its filthy habits. It breeds in filth, feeds on filth in open closets, slop-barrels, on the streets and in back alleys and then comes into the house and wipes this germ-laden filth on our food or on the hands or even in the mouths of helpless babies. Who has not seen flies feeding on running sores on animals, or on "spit" on sidewalks? These same flies the next minute may be feeding on fruits or other food materials. We rebel when pests destroy our crops or attack our stock, but here we have a pest which endangers our very lives, and the lives of those dear to us.
If the fly confined itself to filth we could overlook it as it would help to hasten the removal of filth. On the other hand, if it avoided filth and remained in our home we could not overlook it, but we could feel safe that it was not apt to do us a great deal of harm. But, like the English sparrow, one minute it is here and the next somewhere else; from filth to foods and then back again to filth. In this way it carries disease germs upon its feet and other parts of its body and by coming in contact with food material some of these germs are sure to be left on it and cause trouble later. The fly's method of carrying disease is different from that of the mosquito where the germ is carried inside its body.
[Illustration: House fly; a, larva or maggot; b, pupa; c, adult; e, egg. All enlarged. (Modified from Howard Bur. of Entomology. U. S. Dept. Agri.)]
The presence of flies in the home is usually a sign of untidiness; but it means more, it means that disease and often death is hovering over the home. We are too apt to consider the fly simply as a nuisance when we should take it more seriously. The child should be led to realize that the fly should not be tolerated in the home, that it is dangerous and that it can and must be destroyed.
The house fly may pass the winter either as the adult fly in cracks and crannies about the home, or in out-buildings or it may remain as a hard, brown, oval pupa in stables and manure piles when, with the first warm days of spring, it escape from this case as the fly ready to lay eggs for the first colony. The fly breeds largely in horse manure either in stables, manure piles or in street gutters where manure is allowed to collect. Each female lays a large number of eggs and since it requires less than two weeks for the pest to mature, we are soon overrun with flies in the summer where steps are not taken to control them. The maggots are often so abundant in stables that they can be scooped out with a shovel. This ceaseless breeding continues from spring until the first frost in the fall.
[Illustration: Favorite breeding places of house fly. Such places should be kept as clean and neat as the front yard.]
In the control of the fly and prevention of trouble from it there are three important steps to take. First of all, go to the source of the