NOTE ON FREQUENCY OF PARASITES IN INDIAN ARMY HORSES. 139 



Parasites found in various situations. 



The evidence given here is of two kinds : (a) Positive— including 

 presence of parasites or indications of their having been present ; 

 and (b) Negative — the absence of parasites and of traces of them. 

 We have positive evidence of the occurrence of parasites as follows: — 

 1. Bots, the larvce of oestrus equi, in the stomach only, 

 from which we infer that these partial parasites are at Bangalore in 

 August not yet ready to assume the chrysalis stage. We can easily 

 understand why bots were present in every case examined, for 

 all the horses were standing in open lines and fastened by head-and heel- 

 ropes ; they were, therefore, continuously exposed to the attack of 

 the gad-fly and deprived of power to escape it by flight into water 

 or otherwise. The horse gad-fly is, however, not very irritating, 

 and it deposits its eggs on the long hairs of the legs instead of on 

 more sensitive parts, such as the nostrils, attacked by the gad-fly of 

 the sheep, and (by puncture) the skin as in case of the ox gad-fly. 



