Mar. 2, 1908.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S. W, 233 



Xote on Preceding Report. 

 Simultaneously with the receipt of above report from Nausori Mill, we 

 have one from another of our Fiji mills reporting that the bot-flies had 

 commenced attacking the horses. As the bots are supposed to lemain for 

 something like a year inside the animals, and the flies emerge in about a 

 couple of weeks after the voiding of the bots, it is highly probable that these 

 flies are from recently-voided bots, and that in Fiji, just at the time of trying 

 the carbon bisulphide treatment, all the bots may have naturalh' left the 

 mules ; hence the negative result at Nausori Mill, as far as bots are concerned. 

 The expulsion of so many pai'asitic worms would lead us to expect a similar 

 effect on bots when present, anrl instructions have been given to repeat the 

 carbon bisulphide treatment from time to time during the ensuing year. — T.S. 



Conclusion. 



Since these notes were written I have examined some specimens of bot- 

 flies in the National Museum collections in Melbourne, which Mr. Kershaw 

 tells me is the common species in Victoria. These flies are named Gasterophilus 

 sahUaris, and are identical w4th specimens I have received from Wagga ; and 

 only a few days ago Mr. Steel received specimens from the Colonial Sugar 

 Company's estates in Fiji, which also V)elong to this species. The bots of all 

 these flies also agree in having a double row of spines round the segments, 

 while the larvte of Gasterophilus equi are described as having a single row. 

 Some bots taken from a New Zealand racehorse, killed at Botany, New South 

 Wales, had only the single row, and probably belonged to the latter species. 

 Walker describes four species as found in England, and this one as rare. It 

 differs from the common species in having unclouded wings, and the more 

 brilliant tints upon the head and thorax. 



Walker gives the following description : — - 



Gasterophilus salutaris, (Estr., pi. 1, f. 3.5, 36 (1815) ; Long. 4i-5 ; wings, 9-10 lines. 

 Body black, very pubebcent, shining, punctured, brighter and more robust in the male 

 than in the female ; head clothed with short ochraceous hair : eyes dull, castaneous ; 

 thorax covered with orange down, liaving at the base of each wing an orange spot, which 

 is more distinct in the mtile than in the female ; wings slightly In-own, yellowish-brown 

 at the base and along the fore border ; coastal vein brown, the otliers paler ; alulae, 

 opaque-white ; abdomen black in the middle, clothed with pale yellow hairs towards the 

 base, and with orange hairs at the tip ; legs reddish-brown, clothed with paler down. 

 Not common. 



Reference to Plate. 



1. Dorsal view of Bot-fly. Gasterophilus salutaris, Clk. 



2. Side view ,, ,, ,, „ 



3. Eggs of Bot-fly on hair of horse. 



4. ,, (enlarged) ,, ,, 



5. Larvse or Bots attached to stomach of horse. 



6. Bots of Gaxterophitus salutaris (mules), Fiji. 



7. Head segment of Bot of G. salutaris (horses), Sydney. 



8. Bots of Gasterophilns salutaris (horses), Sydney. 



9. Bot of Gasterophilus equi (New- Zealand racehorse killed in Sydney). 



