168 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Treatment. 



As before, preveutioii is worthy a first notice. The sheep-breeders have found 

 that by tarring the noses of their sheep they render them exempt from attack. 

 To do this with slight trouble, two-inch holes are bored into logs, into which 

 salt is placed, and the edges then smeared with tar. As the sheep reach for 

 the salt they receive the needed application of tar. It is the practice, too, with 

 some, to plow a furrow that the sheep may gain protection by pushing their 

 noses into the earth. This -'"r/y be partially effective. Early, while the mag- 

 gots are in the nasal cavities, it would be desirable to brush these cavities with a 

 feather moistened or wet in oil of turpentine. It is also suggested that we 

 induce sneezing by administering snuff or lime, and that we kill the hots by 

 introducing vinegar, solutions of salt, tobacco, or a weak solution of turpentine, 

 after first shutting the sheep into a warm place, that the maggots may leave the 

 sinuses. If the larva? pass to the brain, or if they are very numerous in the sinuses 

 of the bones, cure is well nigh impossible. 



Tlic Cattle Bot-Fhj — Hypoderma hovis, Latr. 



Few farmers' boys have failed to note the lumps on the back of some favorite 

 steer or heifer, and with real sorrow traced the true cause to the large ugly hot, 

 which they with great joy found could be forced from its snug burrow, and their 

 pets freed from the loathsome plague. With what added interest have some 

 few — naturalists by nature — watched the sleek old culprit, carefully traced tlie 

 future development, until at last they were delighted with the rich possession — 

 self -won — of a full knowledge of its entire 



Natural HiMo7-y. 



The imago or fly (Fig. G) so much resembles adwarf bumble-bee, that quite likely 

 it has often been mistaken for one. Like rhe bumble-bee, it is 

 densely hairy, except that the thorax is black from nudity, 

 rather than from hairs of that color, as in our bumble-bees. 

 The head, two broad bands on the thorax, and the base of the 

 abdomen are yellowish white, tlie middle of the latter black. 

 Fig. 6. while the tip is reddish orange. The mouth is very rudimentary, 



Cattle bot-fly. the cycs ocelli or simple e3^es; halters, or rudimentary second 

 wings, and the ovipositor in the female are plainly visible. These appear as 

 before in summer and early autumn, and after pairing, the females at once com- 

 mence their only mission of egg-laying. 



The eggs are placed on the backs of cattle, a preference, if there is any, being 

 shown for the sleekest kino of the lierd. Some have supposed that this was a 

 painful operation, as the cattle are made fairly frantic by the operation. I 

 think, however, that this is a mistake. The ovipositor seems too slender and 

 weak to work the slightest injury. The explanation already given seems to me 

 the more rational. 



The larva? (Fig. 7), so soon as hatched, pierces the skin, and by its irritation 

 causes quite a tumor, which increases with the growth of the 

 maggot. The bot feeds on the jius and is never without air, 

 as the tumor is always kept open. The color of this maggot 

 is white at first, but becomes brown with maturity. They have fig. 



the spines in rows, as also seen in tlie horse-bot, but the mouth, cattie-bot. 

 like all cutaneous bots, contains fleshy tubercles instead of the hooks. Tlie 

 sphericle plates at the posterior of the body are always at the window. We should 



