508 ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF DERMATOBIA HOMINIS. 



whom he operated in the Charity Hospital at New Orleans for the removal of three * 

 larvae from the gluteal region. The sinus in which the larvae lay was oblique and in 

 subdermal tissue. The patient was stung by a fly on June 11 and the larvae were 

 removed on June 27. I have given above a careful description of these larvae, which 

 Blanchard has already rightly interpreted as of the stage designated as ver macaque. 



Matas states that "similar instances of larval deposits in the skin have not been 

 rare in the hospital, at least since the Panama Canal and other enterprises have 

 increased the traffic between this port [New Orleans] and the Central American 

 Republics." These cases were not more precisely studied to determine the species 

 concerned, and I find no further records of them in print. In Matas's paper, how- 

 ever, is the record of a previous case in the same hospital in which similar parasites 

 were removed from a Frenchman, also from Honduras. This paper also includes 

 very complete references to the chief contributions by previous authors and a discus- 

 sion of the taxonomy and nomenclature of this form, much of which is credited to 

 L. O. Howard. The major part of this contribution was afterwards reprinted in 

 "Insect Life" (vol. 1, pp. 76-80). 



In a brief note James ( '89) refers to an unnamed article or address by Riley which 

 records the occurrence of "a small larva of some species of bot-fly" in the skin of the 

 neck of a woman stung by some insect in Washington, D. C. There is absolutely no 

 evidence for interpreting this as a case of Dermatobia, and one remarks the absence 

 of any note upon the peculiar form of the larva by one so familiar with the common 

 bot larva as Riley was. About this time also Riley reprinted the major part of an 

 article on the real Dermatobia larva by Matas ('87) which he recognized at once as 

 peculiar and important. On these grounds I am forced to conclude that this case 

 cannot concern Dermatobia. 



Blanchard ('97, p. 649) has referred to several other cases from the United States. 

 He records a communication from L. 0. Howard in which was described the case of 

 a sailor from Brazil, from whose arm a larva was extracted at Newport News, Va. ; 

 this case has not been published here. According to a personal communication to 

 Blanchard the larva sent by Baron Osten-Sacken to Brauer and described by him 

 ('63, p. 259, PI. X, Fig. 2) had been given Baron Osten-Sacken by Dr. John L. Le Conte, 

 of Philadelphia. It came from Honduras, and is referred to in the complete edition 

 of Say's works in a note which Le Conte appended to Say's description of the specimen 

 obtained from Dr. Brick. Le Conte regarded the two larvae as identical. 



Some part of the life history of this species appears now to be reasonably well 

 established. How the eggs or embryos are deposited, how the young gain their place 



* Blanchard ('92, p. 133) wrongly says the number was not indicated. 



