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INSECTS INJURIOUS TO STOCK IN THE VICINITY 

 OF THE GULF BIOLOGIC STATION.* 



BY JAMES S. HINE. 



The Gulf Biologic Station is located at Cameron, La., near the 

 mouth of the Calcasieu River, which empties into the Gulf of 

 Mexico a few miles from the Texas boundary. The writer ar- 

 rived there August 14, 1903, with directions from the United 

 States Department of Agriculture to investigate the stock insects 

 of the region. A report on a subject like the present one, ob- 

 served for a short time, must necessarily be incomplete, and 

 some suggestions are omitted which if developed might lead to 

 important results. 



Mosquitoes are very abundant and are serious pests to both 

 man and beast. The director of the station, Prof. H. A. Morgan, 

 is actively engaged in studying them. 



Several of the Muscids, such as the stable fly, hornfiy, screw- 

 worm fly, and Hippelates flies, are also plentiful. 



Although directed to investigate stock insects, the writer under- 

 stood that horseflies of the family Tabanidee were to be his special 

 subject, consequently most of his time during a two weeks' stay 

 was devoted to these forms. 



The whole country is only a few feet above sea level and 'is 

 favorable for the development of the Tabanidse on account of the 

 large acreage of wet and marshy land. Running nearly parallel 

 to the shore of the Gulf is a series of alternating ridges and de- 

 pressions. The depressions form extensive fresh-water marshes, 

 over a part of which the water stands the year round. Such spe- 

 cies as oviposit over mud or stagnant water find ideal conditions 

 in this region, and consequently some of them are abundant. 



SPECIES OF TABANIDAE OBSERVED. 



A large number of species have a range such as would safely 

 include them within the fauna of Louisiana; and besides the 

 writer has seen nearly a dozen species from that State, but during 

 his stay there only five were collected or observed, but at least 

 three of these are among the worst stock pests of the family, and 

 taking into consideration their abundance in the region, they are 

 certainly i serious drawback to stock raising. 



♦Reprinted from "Some Miscellaneous Results of the Work of the Division of 

 Entomology, \ II. "-U. S. Dept. Agr. Division of Entomology. Bull. No. 44. Wash- 

 ington, lit03, pp. .57-60. 



