OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XIV, 1912. 9 



ON THE REARING OF A DERMATOBIA HOMINIS LINNAEUS. 



BY AUGUST BUSCK. 



The literature on Dermatobia infesting man is very large 

 and the biology of the species is fairly well studied and un- 

 derstood. Dr. Raphael Blauchard, in his classical paper, "Sur 

 les (Kstrides americains dont la larve vit dans la peau de 1' 

 homme" (Ann. Soc. Ent. France, vol. 61, pp. 109-154, 1892), 

 gives a comprehensive review of the literature on this species 

 from the first record in 1749 to the date of his article, and Dr. 

 A. Neiva has lately given full synonymy and life-history with 

 illustrations of all stages in his "Algumas iuformacoes sobre 

 o Berne" (Chacaras e Quintaes, vol. n, no. 1, 1910, reprinted 

 as a separate publication in Rio de Janeiro, 1911). 



The following notes do not pretend to add anything new, 

 but are merely an account of an actual breeding of the para- 

 site from man, of which there is as yet no published record. 



The writer has on several occasions become infested with 

 the larva of Dermatobia, but has been unable to indulge his 

 desire to breed the fly, because the inconvenience of an infes- 

 tation interfered with work on hand. Acquiring, however, an 

 infestation towards the close of my last stay in Panama, this 

 summer, and in a reasonably inoffensive part of the body, 

 upper left arm, I determined to let it remain and succeeded in 

 rearing the fly. 



The infestation took place at Cabima, Panama, on May 29; 

 only one cast skin was observed during the larval period; this 

 was shed and pushed out nearly entire through the aperture 

 in my skin on July 19; on September 9 the larva had at- 

 tained full growth and left the arm, posterior end first. It 

 was at this time nearly 1 inch long (24 mm.) and 10 mm. in 

 diameter. On being placed in a jar with wet sand it immedi- 

 ately burrowed down 2 inches to the bottom of the jar and 

 pupated. The fly issued on October 23. 



No exact observation on the oviposition is recorded in print 

 and none was made by the writer; the egg is known only 

 from dissected females, but there is no doubt that the larva 

 hatches at once at the time of oviposition and normally bores 

 into the skin just where it is deposited; for this reason the 

 bulk of the infestations occur on exposed parts of the body, 

 the arms, legs, and neck; but it is plainly either possible for 

 the larva to travel some distance, if not satisfied with its first 

 situation, or else survive a fall from this exposed place to 

 another under the clothing of the host; the writer was thus 

 infested by another larva earlier in the season just under the 



