Soon the fly dies. This white dust is a disease of the fly. It does not curl up its legs when it dies from this cause. They are stiff and spread out. The fly looks like a live fly. If you touch it, it crumbles to dust.
All around such a dead fly you will see a ring of white mould. This is perhaps a real mould, or tiny plant, that seizes on the body of the fly. It uses up all the soft parts, and so kills it, leaving only the dry shell.
There is another strange thing about this. The body of a fly that dies in this way is rent or burst open. The fly looks as if this dust or mould had grown large in the body and so torn it open.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] See Reader, Seaside and Wayside No. III., Lesson XIII.
LESSON XIX.
OF WHAT USE ARE FLIES?
How often people cry out, “Oh, I wish there were no flies! What is the use of a fly?”
But all things that God has made have their uses. And all God’s works are worthy of study.
You have learned that worms are of great use. Let us see if Mrs. Fly does any good in the world.