10 



Genus PHLEBOTOMUS, Rondani. 



Sopra una specie di Insetto Dittero ; Memoria prima per servire 

 alia Ditterologia Italiana, p. 12 (Parma : Donati, 1840). 

 [Flebotomus.'] 



" Sand-flies." 



Plate I., fig. 4. 



In appearance the members of this genus, — of which only half-a- 

 dozen species, from Southern Europe, Africa, India, and North 

 and Central America have yet been described, — are small yellowish, 

 yellowish-brown, or brownish flies, from 1.3 to 2.5 mm. in length 

 according to the species, and with the body and edges and veins of 

 the wings densely clothed with long hair, that on the hind margin of 

 the wings being especially long. Except in the case of females 

 distended with eggs or with blood, the body is slender, especially 

 in the male, in which the end of the abdomen is armed with hooks 

 and claspers of remarkable size and development, which afford 

 useful characters for the distinction of species. The eyes, which 

 are black and prominent, are composed of relatively large, 

 bead-like facets, and, though concealed by the long hair on the 

 crown of the head and back of the thorax when the insect is viewed 

 from above, are very conspicuous when seen from the side. The 

 antennae, palpi, and legs are long in both sexes, and there is a well- 

 developed, beak-like proboscis, which projects vertically beneath 

 the head. 



Since no observations worth mentioning have yet been made on 

 the bionomics of African species of this genus, the following summary 

 is necessarily based on work which has been done elsewhere (in 

 Southern Europe and India), but there can be little doubt that the 

 habits and life-history of these insects are much the same 

 wherever they occur. — In his paper read in February of the present 

 year before the Medical Congress in Bombay, Mr. F. M. Howlett,* 



* Gf. note on previous page.— For a copy of this paper I am indebted to the 

 courtesy of the author. 



