She has no legs to spare for picking up food; but she has a little mouth that drops like an elephant's trunk. Out of that mouth comes a dew-drop of liquid to make syrup of the grain of sugar. The knob on the end of the mouth parts, and the two lips spread out flat over that drop. She stands there licking with a little rasp of a tongue blissfully until she has sucked it all up. Then she wipes her mouth with her foot, and cleans herself all over again.
Tsetse Fly, found in Africa. Its bite kills cattle, horses and dogs, but is harmless to man.
"I have another name. It's Diptera. That means two-winged. My family is very important. It's the biggest one on earth, with thousands of members. You can always know a Diptera by the two wings. Most insects have four. One of my cousins is very musical, but I am sorry to say, he is also a blood-sucker. If he shows any fondness for people, it's because he likes to bite them. His name is mosquito. The horse-, or gad-fly, can make horses jump and even run away. The Hessian fly stings wheat. The saw fly lays her eggs on rose blossoms. The tsetse fly kills cattle sometimes; the gall fly stings plants and makes galls grow on them. And there are gnats and midges. They come in swarms. Did you ever hear of 'a plague of flies?'"
Ichneumon Fly; is useful because it destroys insects which injure trees and shrubs.
"Yes, indeed, and 'the fly in the ointment.' You spoil a good many things. Your whole family seems to be a nuisance."
"Not all. The dragon-fly and ichneumon fly are useful. And I don't see what you have against me! I can't bite or sting, and I eat very little, compared with some people I could mention. To be sure, I have little tickly hairs on my feet and scrapers on my tongue, and that makes people nervous. And I like to wake lazy people up in the morning. No one can sleep after daylight when I'm around. If you had only one summer to live, you'd want to get up early and make the most of every day.
"It's pretty hard to catch me, too. I have several thousand little flat eyes in the two in my head. They're like the facets on a
