Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1873 — The Blow-Fly. [ARTICLE]

The Blow-Fly.

Mr. G. A. Rowell lias recently made an astounding calculation respecting tlie blow-fly. On tlie authority of Reaumur, he states that one fly will produce 20,000 eggs, which are hatched almost as soon as deposited. Maggots issue forth, and almost immediately begin to feed, and twenty-four hours increase their weight 200 times. In eight or nine days tliey are full grown. They then assume the. pupa state, and, after another period of about the same duration, come forth perfect flies. A month, therefore, is rather more' than enough for a generation. Suppose that of the 20,000 eggs half produce females, then in the first family there will be IftoOO flies, each capable of producing 20,000 eggs. A very simple calculation will Show that at this rate, in less than six months, tlie sixth generation will number 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. If every fly is half an inch long, a quarter of an inch’ wide, and the same in depth — that is to say, if thirty-two of them occupy a cubic inch —there will be enough to cover all England and Wales to the depth of 3,800 miles, or tlie entire world, both land and water, to the depth of a mile and a quarter. Fortunately for afternoon nappers, the juvenile blow-fly has a terrible number of enemies, and very rarely lives to attain parental dignity. A C'alwirnia newspaper says:- “The schooner Urania, which arrived a few days ago from Alaska, and which now lies at the Market street wharf, has a curious cargo, consisting as it does of thousands of furs*of wolves, otters, foxes, beavers, seals and bears, and hundreds of fossil bones and walrus teeth. Several tusks in her cargo are of immense size, being as riTuch as eight feet in length, and one is an antediluvian curiosity. It is about ten feet> in length, and nine inches in diameter, all of solid ivory. Hutchinson, Kohl & Co., tlie agents of the Alaska Commercial Company, have secured it, and intend putting it up in their office as a curiosity. It was dug from the eartli in the vicinity of Kotzbue Sound, Alaska, last summer. When found it lay near the surface with one end exposed. —A youth of eighteen, wlto claims to be the grandson of the Duke of Brunswick, was refused permission to attend the funeral by the authorities, on tlie ground that to accede to tlie request would be to oppose entirely the provisions of the Duke’s will.