hairy wings, which unfortunately arrived in tcjo damaged a conditi<jn 

 for description : — " Very small Mood-sucking flies, most active 

 early in the morning and in the evening, and in dai-k huts during 

 the day. A shrill buzz is heard wiu-n they are on tlu^ wing near 

 one's ear. They will pierce the human skin as (juickly as a Tsetse, 

 and like that fly they appear to take their fill and then retire to 

 digest it. The particular specimens sent are from lUantyre 

 District, Shire Highlands, hut I have seen and caught them in 

 North-Eastern Rhodesia, in Tsetse country ; they are always found 

 in well-treed country, and sometimes in numbers akin to swarms. 

 They are very active and difficult to catch in a bad light, most 

 readily go for one's ankles and face, and are sometimes quite as 

 annoying as Mosquitoes ; the puncture inflicted by them produces 

 a distinct pricking sensation. The abundance of these insects in 

 certain places may render them quite worthy of the attention of 

 students of blood-sucking flies in relation to disease." 



The larvce are very active, eel-Uke creatures, 

 Life-history. with smooth bodies, consisting of thirteen 

 segments, including the chitinous head ; the 

 prothoracic segment is devoid of prolegs on its under side. The 

 tracheal system is entirely closed, and the anal segment bears 

 retractile tracheal gills.* No observations have yet been made on 

 the Ufe-liistory of any African species of Culicoides, but, like those 

 of other species of the genus, the larvae of African forms probably 

 live in the sap saturating diseased bark on tree-trunks ; some are 

 perhaps aquatic. 



The pupa in Culicoides is nearly smooth, but, according to Kieffer, 

 the abdommal segments each bear a transverse ridge armed \\'ith 

 minute spines. 



* For a fuller account of the larva of Culicoides, see Kieffer, Wytsman's " Genera 

 Insectorum," 42me Fascicule, "Diptera: Fam. Chironoinidp," pp. 5.3, 54 (Brussels: 

 P. Wytsman, 43, Rue Saint- Alphonse, 1900). 



