SPRING QUARTER, 2006
Department of History
University of California, Irvine
Instructor: Dr. Barbara J. Becker
Observations of Flies with a Microscope
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Observation 37. Of the Feet of Flies, and several other Insects.
The foot of a Fly ... is of a most admirable and curious contrivance, for by this the Flies are enabled to walk against the sides of Glass, perpendicularly upwards, and to contain themselves in that posture as long as they please; nay, to walk and suspend themselves against the under surface of many bodies, as the ceiling of a room, or the like, as if they were a kind of Antipodes, and had a tendency upwards, as we are sure they have the contrary, which they also evidently discover in that they cannot make themselves so light, as to stick or suspend themselves on the under surface of a Glass well polish'd and cleans'd; their suspension therefore is wholly to be ascrib'd to some Mechanical contrivance in their feet; which ... consists principally in two parts, that is, first its two Claws, or Tallons, and secondly, two Palms, Pattens, or Soles....
Observation 38. Of the Structure and motion of the Wings of Flies.
The Wings of all kinds of Insects are, for the most part, very beautifull Objects, and afford no less pleasing an Object to the mind to speculate upon, then to the eye to behold....
The fabrick of the wing as it appears through a moderately magnifying Microscope, seems to be a body consisting of two parts ... the one is a quilly or finny substance, consisting of several long, slender and variously bended quills or wires, something resembling the veins of leaves; these are, as t'were, the finns or quills which stiffen the whole Area, and keep the other part distended, which is a very thin transparent skin or membrane variously folded, and platted, but not very regularly, and is besides exceeding thickly bestuck with innumerable small bristles, which are only perceptible by the bigger magnifying Microscope....
In steed of these small hairs, in several other Flies, there are an infinite of small Feathers, which cover both the under and upper sides of this thin film as in almost all the sorts of Butterflies and Moths: and those small parts are not onely shap'd very much like the feathers of Birds, but like those variegated with all the variety of curious bright and vivid colours imaginable; and those feathers are likewise so admirably and delicately rang'd, as to compose very fine flourishings and ornamental paintings, like Turkie and Persian Carpets, but of far more surpassing beauty, as is evident enough to the naked eye, in the painted wings of Butterflies, but much more through an ordinary Microscope.
Observation 39. Of the Eyes and Head of a Grey drone-Fly, and of several other creatures.
[T]he greatest part of the face, nay, of the head was nothing else but two large and protuberant bunches, or prominent parts ... the surface of each of which was cover'd over, or shap'd into a multitude of small Hemispheres plac'd in a triagonal order, that is being the closest and most compacted, and in that order, rang'd over the whole surface of the eye in very lovely rows, between each of which, as is necessary, were left long and regular trenches, the bottoms of every of which, were perfectly intire, and not at all perforated or drill'd through, which I most certainly was assured of, by the regularly reflected Image of certain Objects which I mov'd to and fro between the head and the light....
[T]he number of the Pearls or Hemispheres in the clusters of this Fly were neer 14000. which I judged by numbering certain rows of them several ways, and casting up the whole content, accounting each cluster to contain about seven thousand Pearls....
[T]he order of these eies or Hemispheres was altogether curious and admirable, they being plac'd ... in a most curious and regular ordination of triangular rows, in which order they are rang'd the neerest together that possibly they can....
[The] outward skin [of the eye], like the Cornea of the eyes of the greater Animals, was both flexible and transparent, and seem'd, through the Microscope, perfectly to resemble the very substance of the Cornea of a man's eye.... I have observ'd ... within this Cornea, a certain cleer liquor or juice, though in a very little quantity....
These being their eyes, it affords us a very pretty Speculation to contemplate their manner of vision, which, as it is very differing from that of biocular Animals, so is it not less admirable....
[W]e see, that though it has pleas'd the All-wise Creator, to indue this creature with such multitudes of eyes, yet has he not indued it with the faculty of seeing more then another creature; for whereas this cannot move his head, at least can move it very little, without moving his whole body, biocular creatures can in an instant ... move their eyes so as to direct the optick Axis to any point....
Observation 42. Of a blue Fly.
This kind of Fly ... is a very beautifull creature, and has many things about it very notable....
[A]bout the middle of the face, on a prominent part C, grew two small oblong bodies, DD, which through a Microscope looked not unlike the Pendants in Lillies.... [O]ut of the upper part and outsides of these horns (as I may call them ... marked with FF) there grows a single feather, or brushy Brisle, EE, somewhat of the same kind with the tufts of a Gnat.... What the use of these kind of horned and tufted bodies should be, I cannot well imagine, unless they serve for smelling, or hearing, though how they are adapted for either, it seems very difficult to describe they are in almost every several kind of Flies of so various a shape; though certainly they are some very essential part of the head, and have some very notable task assign'd them by Nature, since in all Insects they are to be found in one or other form.
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