172 JOURNAL, BO MB A Y NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



-Maggot" is the larva of A uchmeromyia luteola, Fabr., an African Muscid fly, 

 which is found from Nigeria to Natal, and is itself incapable of sucking blood. 

 The maggot, which attains a length of 15 mm., lives in the floor of native 

 huts, and at night fastens upon the limbs of sleepers and sucks its fill of blood. 

 The perfect insect is about 11 mm. in length, and pale yellow in colour, with 

 the distal portion of the abdomen, except the tip, bluish black. 



Hippoboscidse. 



This family, which is distributed throughout the world, includes a number 

 of small genera, the species of which are all parasitic on mammals and birds. 

 From the point of view of possible dissemination of disease, however, it is un- 

 necessary to consider here the bird-parasites belonging 

 to the genera Olfersia, Ornithomyia , etc.* The mamma'- 

 parasites are comprised in the genera Hippobosca, Al- 

 lohosca, Ortholfersia, Lipoptena, and Melophagus. The 

 genus Hippobosca is probably represented throughout 

 the world, and, with one exception,! its eight or nine 

 species are parasitic on horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, or 

 dogs. It is probable that certain species have been 

 introduced with horses into new localities. At Pretoria 

 Dr. Theiler has succeeded experimentally in inoculating 

 cattle with Trypanosoma theileri by means of Hippobosca m b 



rufipes,v. 01fers.(fig. 11). Allobosca, comprising the single a"4 p /' < !' v ' 01fevs - 

 species A.crassipes, Speiser, hus only rudimentary wings, 



and is parasitic upon lemurs in Madagascar. Ortholfersia, of which two species 

 have been described, is found on kangaroos and wallabies in Australia, 

 Tasmania, and New Zealand. The seven or eight known species of Lipoptena 

 are deer- and goat-parasites occurring in Europe, North, Central, and South 

 America, Japan, Malacca, Ceylon, Sinai, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and South 

 Africa. Recently the European Lipoptena cervi, L., has been met with in the 

 Transvaal, and it is possible that it was accidentally introduced with remounts 

 during the Boer War. The single species of Melophagus (M. ovinus, L.) i? a 

 parasite of sheep in Europe and North America. 



Appearance.— Broad, flat-bodied, horny flies, with long wings, except in the 

 case of Allobosca, and of Melophagus, which is entirely apterous, and very dis- 

 similar in appearance to an ordinary fly ; in the other forms the wings in the 

 resting position lie flat over the body closed one over the other like the blades 

 of a pair of scissors (fig. 11). The female Lipoptena almost invariably sheds 

 her wings on reaching a suitable host, and the male frequently does the same. 



* Similarly, the bat-parasites belong to the families Nycteribidse and StreblidaB, which 

 with the Braulidse (bee-parasites) and the Hippoboscidae make up the group of Diptera 

 known as the Pupipara, may also be disregarded. It should be noted, however, that under 

 exceptional circumstances human beings may be attacked by parasitic blood-sucking insects 

 •vhich are normally found on quite other hosts. 



t Hippobosca striUhionis, .Tanson, which is said to be found on ostriches in Cape Colony. 



