488 ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF DERMATOBIA HOMINISl 



"Le 'Ver macaque,' tou jours de plus petite taille, est le premier e"tat larvaire; 

 le 'Torcel' ou 'Berne,' tou jours plus grand, est le deuxieme e"tat larvaire." 



Blanchard's last contribution to this subject ('97) demonstrated the identity 

 of the adult Dermatobia noxialis (Goudot 1845) with D. cyaniventris (Macquart 1843), 

 so that the former falls into the list of synonyms. Meanwhile Magalhaes ('96) had 

 established by breeding experiments that the berne (s. sir.) was the last larval stage 

 of D. cyaniventris and consequently according to Blanchard's earlier work, of the 

 entire series of larval forms previously known. 



HI. NAME OF THE PARASITE. 



The popular designations applied to this species have varied in every country 

 and the general term in any region came to be used for that stage of development 

 manifested by the first specimen from the given region which happened to be studied, 

 so that Blanchard ('92) was led to designate the various larvae as ver macaque, torcel, 

 berne, etc., so long as he believed them to represent distinct species rather than stages 

 of development in one species. That these names apply locally to the parasite rather 

 than to any particular stage of development is sufficiently demonstrated by the fact 

 that Blanchard himself received a consignment of the berne from Brazil, in which 

 there was not a single specimen of that stage, while the specimens which I had from 

 Costa Rica were all designated torcel, though one was a ver macaque according to the 

 usage of Blanchard. 



The scientific name appears also to be somewhat uncertain. Gmelin was the 

 first to give the species a definite name and diagnosis, which in Turton's edition of 

 the "Systema Naturae," translated from the thirteenth edition according to Say 

 ('22, p. 354), is as follows: 



"(Estrus hominis. Body entirely brown. Inhabits South America. Linne ap- 

 Pall. nord. Beytr. p. 157. Deposits its eggs under the skin, on the bellies of the 

 natives; the larva, if it be disturbed, penetrates deeper and produces an ulcer which 

 frequently becomes fatal." After a somewhat extended description and careful 

 discussion of the relationship of the form in question Say declared (p. 358) that the 

 Linnsean (Estrus hominis should be restored to its place in the system and believed 

 it might be safely referred to the newly established genus Cuterebra of Clark. 



Goudot ('45), who was the first to breed the adult form from the larva, denom- 

 inated it Cuterebra noxialis and rejected the earlier name as that of an imaginary 

 species, since it indicated that man had a parasite peculiar to himself. Some time 

 later Brauer ('60 a ) divided Clark's genus Cuterebra and established a new genus, 



