123 



green or bluish green, with the upper and lower margins and three 

 horizontal and partly zigzag bands dark brown. 



Although extremely bloodthirsty and pertinacious in their 

 attacks, and when numerous making their presence severely felt 

 both by human beings and domestic animals, the females of most 

 species of Hcematopota are sluggish flies, which are easily caught 

 with the fingers when biting. In West Africa several species are 

 met with in shady bush-paths, where they often attack travellers 

 in hammocks. In Angola, according to Dr. Creighton Wellman : — 

 " These flies are a terrible pest in the wet season, both to men and 

 animals." " The nearly naked natives," continues Dr. Wellman, 

 " suffer badly, and I have seen even a phlegmatic donkey become 

 excited over them. One sometimes sees a horse or mule with the 

 side of its neck almost literally covered with the tormentors. Tliey 

 will bite through thin clothing."* The author is informed by Mr. 

 E. A. Copeman (late District Commissioner, British South Africa 

 Company) that in the Kasempa District, North- Western Rhodesia, 

 Hcematopota copemanii, Austen, H. pertinens, Austen, and at least 

 two other species of the genus are " an awful pest in the early rainy 

 season " ; Mr. Copeman adds that the bites cause " irritation and 

 swelling." 



So far as can be ascertained, the only observations 

 Life-history, that have yet been made on the preliminary 



stages of any species of Hcematopota refer to the 

 common Palsearctic H. pluvialis, Linn. ; even of this the egg-stage 

 has not been observed, but the larva and pupa are of the ordinary 

 Tabanid type. The larva, — which is carnivorous, and has been 

 known to bore its way into a beetle-larva, only leaving the latter 

 on becoming too large for its host to contain it, — resembles that of 

 a Tabanus ; the usual transverse row of fleshy protuberances on 

 each of the first seven abdominal segments is composed of two pairs 

 on the actual ventral surface, and a single protuberance occupying 

 a more lateral position on each side of these ; the longitudinal 

 striations on the body are exceedingly fine. Beling on several 



* Cf. F. Creighton Wellmaiin. M.D., Entomological News, V'A. XTX., No. 5, 

 pp. 228-229 (May, 1908). 



