emery: SIMULIUM VITTATUM in KANSAS. 341 



Flies, vol. I, p. 165) says: "In England we do not suffer much 

 from these flies, but in other parts of Europe they are very ob- 

 noxious; Schonbauer (Gesch. der Shadl. Kolumbatezermucken, 

 Wien, 1895; and Kollar's 'Treatise on Injurious Insects,' p. 68) 

 gives an account of one, S. columbaschensis, which is one of 

 the greatest scourges to man and beast in the Bannat of 

 Temeswar, in Hungaiy. Fries (Observ. Entom. [Sivinlium], 

 Stockh., 1824; Fries) also describes the molestations of these 

 'sand flies' in Lapland." 



In America accounts have been written from time to time on 

 the ravages of the different species of Simiilium. The black 

 fly of the North (S. molestum Harris) has been described by 

 Dr. A. S. Packard (Amer. Nat., vol. II, pp. 589-590) as even 

 more formidable a pest than the mosquito, that in the northern 

 subarctic regions it opposes a barrier against travel. "The 

 Labrador fishennan spends his summer on the seashore, 

 scarcely daring to penetrate the interior on account of the 

 swarms of these flies."* 



The southern buffalo gnat {S. pecuarmn Riley) and the 

 turkey gnat (S. mevidionale Riley), in the lower Mississippi 

 valley and tributary regions, and the western buffalo gnat 

 {S. occidentale Townsend) , along the valley of the Rio Grande, 

 have been the cause of a great deal of suffering to humans by 

 their bites, and the loss of hundreds of head of live stock, in- 

 cluding poultry. Accounts of these conditions are given by Dr. 

 C. V. Riley in the Year Book for 1886, U. S. Dept. Agri., Div. 

 Ent, pp. 492-517; in Bui. No. 5, 1896, pp. 31-58; in later 

 publications by 0. A. Johannsen, 1903, N. Y. St. Mus. Bui. 

 68, Ent. 18, Aquatic Insects in N. Y. State; and by Dr. 

 S. A. Forbes, State Entomologist of Illinois, 1912, "On Black 

 Flies and Buffalo Gnats (Simuliimi) as Possible Carriers of 

 Pellagra in Illinois." 



Simidmni flies, S. reptans in particular, have been accused 

 of transmitting the humandisease pellagra, by Dr. L. W. Sam- 

 bon. Doctor Sambon formulated the tsetse fly theory of sleep- 

 ing sickness, which has proved true. In 1910 he was detailed 

 for three months in Italy, where he studied pellagra. He says, 

 in a brief report on the investigations of pellagi'a : "The many 

 analogies existing between the epidemiology of pellagra and 



4. Insects Affecting Domestic Animals, U. S. Dept. Agr., Div, of Ent, Bu!,, No. 5, 

 n, s., p, 40, 



3-Univ. Sci, Bull., Vol. VIII. No, 9. 



