Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/747

 FLY

that offenfive weapon for all generations : this is a ftory much believed by the country people, in many of the Roman catho- lic kingdoms. The mouth is of the fame figure with that of the tipulj, or long-legs, being compofed of two membranous lateral lips, like the two valves of a fhell-fifh, which defend and cover two other flefhy lips within*

The aperture of the mouth is occasionally covered in the fame manner with that of the tipula, by two beards which ftand near it; and the antennas are fhort, of the granulated kind, but have nothing lingular in them.

The male is eaiily diftinguifhed from the female, by having a much larger head, and his reticular eyes much large than hers ; they in a manner cover the whole head, and fa over it behind, fo that the creature fees every way at once. Befide thefe, it has alfo a clufter of three bright fingle eyes placed in a triangle on the upper part of the head, and refem- bling the eyes of fpiders.

The wings of this fy are a little longer than its body, and in their ufual pofition. They are crofted in fucha manner, that one of them intirely covers the other, and even the body. When the wings are opened and the body examined, the male and female are found to be very different in figure; the male would naturally be called one of the long bodied kind, his body being Hinder and compofed of feveral rings j the thickeft of which adheres to the breaft, and the reft grow gradually fmaller all the way ; the (urface is rough and uneven, and the whole of no great beauty. The body of the female is ufually diftend- ed with eggs, and thence appears very thick, and much fhort- er than the other, and is of a fmooth and poliihcd furface. Both the male and female fly in a very Angular and awkard manner; they fee m as if hanging in the air, their legs always hanging ftrait down from their body, and thefe being very long appear very oddly. The common pies of this kind are of two fpi'cies, there is a black one, and one whole breaft is of a diijky red ; but according to this defcription of their fe- veral parts, there are feveral other fpecies of them, which are fo fmall as not to appear diflindtly without the afliftance of a microfcope.

All the fpecies of the St. Mark^, are produced' from worms which arc hatched from the eggs of the parent _/?>•, depoiited under the furface of the earth. Thefe worms are fmall and have fcalv heads and no legs ; they fomewhat refemble caterpillars in fhap:, and are hairy, as many of the fpecies of caterpillars are. It is a very common thing to find thoufands of thefe worms in the dung of cows lying on the paftures, where they feed There is vaft plenty of them thus found in the months of Sep tember and October; and as this is a fcafon when their parent fties have been long dead, and the dung they are found in but irefh or a few days old, it is very evident that the eggs of of which they were hatched were not originally depofited there, but that they have crawled up out of the earth, into a fubftance which is more agreeable to them by way of food, than any thing they find under ground.

This is not fingular in this infe£t, for the feveral worms of the beetle kind, fo frequently found in dung, are not produced there, but under the furface of the earth, and only crawl up into the dung for the fake of food and moifture, when it hap- pens to fall upon the place where they are. If a piece of cow-dung in which the worms of this St. Mark fly are, be preferved in a box, it will keep them alive the whole winter, and they will be found in the beginning of March, to be grown much larger than before, and to be lefs hairy, their hairs being longer, and ftanding about nine on every ring. In order to fee the transformation of thefe into the Fly ftate, the dung mult be at this time laid on fome common earth; the worms foon quit the dung, and crawl into the ground, where they transform themfelves aim oft immediately into the nymph ftate, and from thence they iilue out in the form of Flies a few days after the middle of April. They do not al' quit the ihcll of the nymph at the fame time, but the younj Flies may be feen crawling up out of the ground at times, du ring fix or feven days, from the appearance of the firft. The manner of thefe Flies leaving their worm ftate to enter into that of the chryfaiis or nymph, is worthy obfervation. The worm feems in great diforder, and twifts itfelf about feve- ral ways, till at length the skin cracks on the furface of the back, immediately upon this there appears the anterior part of the nymph at the aperture, and this forces its way out by. de- grees, the head becomes of no farther ufe, and is left with the skin; and the nymph by diftending and contracting itfelf, at length makes, its way wholly out of it, and then remains at reft till the Fly ifi'ues out of it. The Jaft transformation of this infefl, or the appearance of the Fly from the nymph, has no-! thing fingular in it, but is performed in the fame manner, with the fame change in other animals of this kind As foon as the Flies are produced they take wing, and fettle upon the fruit trees, or other plants. The male and female foon meet and en- gage in the work of propagating the fpecies; in this the male remains fixed to the female for an hour or longer, and the fe- male often in this ftate flies away with him, and carries him to a great diftance. If they are feen fitting in this condition 3 they

F L Y

may be caught and even killed without their parting from one another. The male on this occafion does not Tit upon the back of the female, but they are joined tail to tail, and the wings of the female cover fo large a part of the body of the male, that the two animals look like one, with a head at each end of the body. After the bufinefs of ihc impregnation of the eggs in this manner is once over, the creatures have no bufinell for any long life. The male has done his part, and the female has no farther bufinefs in the world, than the de- pofitmg lier eggs in the earth, or in the dung of cows and horles; which as foon as me has done, (lie dies. The male being ufually dead before her. The mifchief thefe creatures do to the fruit trees therefore tho' very great is not very Jail- ing, for their duration in the winged (tate is but (hort, they only appear about the middle of April, and they are all gone before May is over. The eggs they depofite foon hatch into worms, which live till the leafon of their appearing in the fy ftate again.

Flower Fly, in natural hiftory, the name of a fmall hut very beautiful fly, defcribed by Clulius. It is black, and has twd ftlvery wings, two white eyes, feven yellow fpots on the back, and a black one in the middle.

Fye/s of Flies. See the article Eyei

Lcgsof Flies. See Leg.

Rings of Flies. See Rings.

Harvejl Fly. See Harvest.

LanthomFLY. See Lanthorn fly.

Kofi Fly. See Rose.

Fly catcher, in zoology. See MuscicapA.

Fly tree, in natural hiftory, a name given by the common people of America to a tree, whofe leaves they fey, at a cer- tain time of the year, produce Flies. On examining thefe leaves about the middle of fummer, the time at which the Flies ufe to be produced, there are found on them a fort of hags of a tough matter, of about the fize of a filbert, and of a dusky greenifti colour; on opening one of thefe bags with a knife, there is ufually found a fingle full grown fly of the gnat kind, and a number of fmall worms, which in^a day or two more have wings and fly away in the form of their parent. The tree is of the mulberry kind, and its leaves are ufually very largely ftocked with thefe infe£t hags, and the generality of them are found to contain the inlecis in the worm ftate ; when they become winged, they foon make their way out. The bags begin to appear when the leaves are young, and af- terwards grow with them, but they never rumple the leaf, or injure its fliape. They are of the kind of leaf galls, and par- take in all refpe&s, except fize, of a fpecies we have frequent on the large maple; or, as it is called, the fycamore. Philof. Tranf. N". 431.

The Fly tree is lound in many parts of France, where it grows in great abundance, and is theie laid to bear fruit, which give origin to vaft numbers of Flies. The truth of the matter is this ; the tree is a fpecies of turpentine tree, and frequently produces or gives origin to certain tubercles, which in the common turpentine tree are called its horns. Thefe are a fort of long bladders of the length and thicknefs of a finger, which arife not from the llalks as fruits do, but from the furface of the leaves, and are only a kind of leaf galls formed of an elon- gation of its outer membranes, occaiioned by the punctures of a number of infects contained within vt, which occalions a de- rivation of frefh juices to the parr. Thefe infects are not Flies of the common kind, but are the pucerons fo well known for feeding on the leaves and tender {talks of trees, and fome few of thefe only are winged, the others being deftitute of them. The origin of thefe tubercles or bladders is this, the female puceron as foon as prouueed from the parent, makes a way under the membrane that covers the leaf by moms of a hole bored in it with her trunk. This hole foon heals up after fhe.is in, and the young ones which file afterwards pro- duces; by their wounding and fucking the fides of the lodg- ment in which they find themfelves placed, occafion all the fwelling and growth of the tubercle. Reaunmr'% Hift. v. 6. p. 34. See the article Puceron.

Fly, in the fea language, that part of the mariner's compafs on which the 32 winds are drawn, and to which the needle is fattened underneath. See Compass, Cycl. and Suppl.

Let Fly the jheets, at fea, a word of command, in cafe of a guft of wind, left the ftiipfliould overfet, or fpend her top-fails and mafc, to have the fheet go a-main, and then the fail will hold no wind.

Fly the heels, in the manege. A horfe is fad to fly the heels, when he obeys the fpurs. See Spur and Heel, Cycl.

FLYING fi/li, a name given by the Engl i ft) writers to feveral fpecies of fifh, which by means of their long fins have a me- thod of keeping themfelves out of water for ibme time. The flying fiih moft properly fo called is the exocartus of the antient authors, and of Artedi. See Tab. of Fifties, N° 41. It is called alfo the adorns, Hrumlo, and mugil alatus or winged mullet, by authors; but they ufe thefe words indeterminately for this, and the other kinds. See the articles Mugil Alatus, and Exocjetus.

Fi.YWG.fib is alfo the name of a fifh of the cuculus or gurnard

kind