The strange fact has been discovered by Grimm, a Russian naturalist, that the pupa of a feathered gnat is capable of laying eggs which produce young during the summer time. Previous to this it had been discovered that a larva of a gnat (Fig. 66 a, eggs from which the young are produced) which lives under the bark of trees in Europe, also produced young born alive.
The Hessian fly (Fig. 67, a, larva; b pupa; c, stalk of wheat injured by larvæ) and Wheat midge, which are allied to the mosquito, are briefly referred to in the calendar, so that we pass over these to consider another pest of our forests and prairies.
67. Hessian Fly and its Young.
66. Viviparous gall larva.
The Black fly is even a more formidable pest than the mosquito. In the northern, subarctic regions, it opposes a barrier against travel. The Labrador fisherman spends his summer on the sea shore, scarcely daring to penetrate the interior on account of the swarms of these flies. During a summer residence on this coast, we sailed up the Esquimaux river for six or eight miles, spending a few hours at a house situated on the bank. The day was warm and but little wind blowing, and the swarms of black flies were absolutely terrific. In vain we frantically waved our net among them, allured by some rare moth; after making a few desperate charges in the face of the thronging pests, we had to retire to the house, where the windows actually swarmed with them; but here they would fly in our faces, crawl under one's clothes, where they even remain and bite in the night. The children in the house were sickly and worn by their unceasing torments; and the shaggy Newfoundland dogs whose thick coats would seem to be proof against their bites ran from their shelter beneath the bench and dashed into the river, their only retreat. In cloudy weather, unlike the mosquito, the black fly disappears, only flying when the sun shines. The bite of the black fly is often severe, the creature leaving a large clot of blood to mark the scene of its surgical triumphs. Prof. E. T. Cox, State Geologist of Indiana, has sent us specimens of a much larger fly, which Baron Osten Sacken refers to this genus, which is called on the prairies, where it is said to bite horses to death, the Buffalo Gnat. Westwood states that an allied fly (Rhagio Columbaschensis) is one of the greatest scourges of man and beast in Hungary, where it has been known to kill cattle.
68. Black fly.
