30 



gorged, whereupon it flies heavily away, while a tiny trickle of blood 

 flows from the puncture it has made. 



" These bites are exceedingly irritating, and in some cases produce 

 considerable swelling. 



• ••••••• 



" Kilteb do not occur at Abu Hamed in very great numbers 

 except during the winter, when the river is low." 



Simulium wellmanni, Roubaud. 



Bulletin du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, T. XII., p. 519 (Paris, 



1906.) 



Plate I., fig. 7. 



This small black species, with conspicuous patches of silvery- 

 white hair on the sides of the abdominal segments, has hitherto 

 been recorded only from Angola, whence the Museum possesses the 

 type and two other females, taken in the large plain called " Bulu- 

 Bulu," in Bihe, in April, 1905 {Dr. F. Creighton Wellman). The 

 collector's field-note is as follows : — " Native name ' ohomono.' 

 These tiny flies bite viciously, and are dreaded by naked porters. 

 Their bite leaves a large raised wheal, with a small red spot in the 

 centre, and itches for several days." Elsewhere, in a paper on 

 " Some Angolan Insects of Economic or Pathologic Importance," 

 Dr. Creighton Wellman writes with reference to S. wellmanni:— 

 " This tiny fly is possibly one of the most successful destroyers of 

 patience and provokers of profanity in the Colony. Natives near 

 wet plains sometimes are compelled to move their kraals on account 

 of it, and I have had to break camp to escape a swarm. It crawls 

 down one's neck and up one's sleeves and bites viciously, leaving 

 a tiny red wheal which itches furiously and does not disappear for 

 some time."* 



* Cf. F. Creighton Wellman, Entomological iVet^Js, Vol. XIX., p. 227 (May, 1908).— 

 The species is referred to in error as " Simulium damnosum, Theob." 



