104 



received since the arrival of the type of T. macrops, more than sixty 



years ago. 



Tabanus tceniola attacks both human beings and domestic animals. 

 According to Surcouf,* a French lieutenant of Zouaves named Chapin 

 states that its bites are fatal to camels in French Congo. In the 

 Kharga Oasis, Upper Egypt, where it occurs from May to September, 

 T. tceniola is also said to kill camels, though according to the late Dr. 

 H. H. Baker, formerly of the Corporation of Western Egypt, Limited, 

 the statement needs verification. Writing from Qara, Kliarga Oasis, 

 on December 5th, 1907, Dr. Baker said : — " With regard to the dis- 

 semination of disease by the flies [T. tceniola, Pal. de Beauv.], the 

 evidence that I have been able to obtain up to the present is not 

 very strong. Among the natives this Oasis is considered an 

 unhealthy place for camels, and they generally attribute its 

 unhealthiness to the flies. Although frequently visited by Bedouin 

 caravans, no camels are bred or kept permanently in the Oasis by 

 the natives. Bedouins who have been obHged to keep camels here 

 for some time, owing to want of grazing ground, are said to have lost 

 considerable numbers of them. 



" The fly undoubtedly attacks camels, and whenever it bites draws 

 a bead of blood and causes considerable irritation. Of the camels 

 belonging to this Corporation which have died here, only one can be 

 said to afford any evidence that the flies were the cause of death. 

 In this case a camel, apparently in good health, was attacked by 

 five or six flies : on the following day it was ill, and it died the day 

 after. A native, who was bitten at the same time while catching 

 specimens for me, was ill for three or four days. This took place 

 some distance from our headquarters, and I did not see the dead 

 camel. The fly is very rarely met with at our headquarters, but 

 camels working in parts of the Oasis where the fly is common do not 

 seem to be any more unhealthy than those working here. In those 

 camels whose bodies I have examined after death, the post-mortem 

 appearances have been so various that I do not think that the cause of 

 death can have been the same in all cases." It is obvious that the 

 death of the camel two days after being bitten, in the case 



* Archives de Paraaitologie, T. XI., p. 472 (1907). 



