1916 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 105 



A fifth Saskatchewan correspondent writes as follows : — - 



I would like to add the following information, which I will vouch for being correct. 

 The nose fly appeared In this district some ten years or more ago, brought I expect 

 from the States or Mexico. In size, shape and color it closely resembles the bot fly, 

 and is often mistaken for it, but it is a trifle smaller and more grey. The principal 

 difference, however, to the horse and stockman lies in its method of depositing its 

 eggs. The bot fly ^buzzes incessantly up and down the animal's legs, sticking a yellow- 

 white egg on the hair every other moment, mostly below the hock or knee. In dis- 

 tinction from the bot fly, the nose fly uses its ovipositor like a hypodermic needle. It 

 flies very swiftly back and forth, poises itself for a moment as though to judge place 

 and distance, and then, darting upward, stabs a black egg into the lip or chin of the 

 horse and retreats as swiftly, only to return at the next suitable moment. The horse 

 can hear it and awaits the attack with nervous apprehension. On feeling the needle- 

 like thrust it starts violently and rubs its lips or nose on the grass or against 

 another horse. Often horses on the range will be seen standing with their noses buried 

 in each other's man-es or resting on another's 'back. I never saw a nose fly draw 

 blood, and I think the " ear fly " referred to in the article is a very small grey-black 

 fly that bites principally in the ears, across the chest and around the sheath. These 

 are distinct from the flies, like very diminutive house flies, which congregate around 

 animals' eyes. There is also the " deer fly," about the size of the house fly, but having 

 a speckled or mottled appearance, whose wings when at rest stand out, giving it a 

 triangular shape. Also the huge fly as big as a wasp, locally known as the " bulldog." 

 The latter flies bite with nippers and generally draw blood. There is also another 

 pest called ttie heel fly which I have not studied yet. Some people claim it is identical 

 with the nose fly. It attacks the heels of cattle, which take refuge in water when pos- 

 sible. It is a common sight to see one or more individual animals ibreak from a bunch 

 or off the feeding ground and stampede for water, brush or, when neither is handy, 

 a buffalo wallow or washout. Animals will be found thus upwards of a mile from any 

 other cattle. In a country so large, individual attempts to destroy any of these vermin 

 seem hopeless; but if any means could be devised to co-operate for their destruction, 

 the relief would be tremendous both to man and beast. Of all the flies the " nose fly " 

 is perhaps the worst, and we have to use some kind of porous net over our horses' 

 noses, as referred to in the quoted article. 



A reader from Alberta (Correspondent No. 6) writes as follows: — 



I have been very much amused and interested at your articles on nose flies and 

 »bot flies. I imagined that every farm boy of an inquiring nature and over ten years 

 of age knew all there was to know about those little pests. I have been a neighbor of 

 theirs for the past thirty years and consider I am about as well acquainted with their 

 habits as the ordinary man. I was a boy of thirteen when I first made the nose flies' 

 acquaintance. I used to lead an old blind horse to the cultivator; on calm, hot days 

 the horse would suddenly stand on his hind legs and start pawing the air with his 

 front feet, sometimes bruising me in his flurry, so I naturally started in to investigate 

 with a boy's curiosity, and the only thing I could notice for a while was a dark object 

 aibout the size of a buckshot come from somewhere near the ground, strike the horse 

 on the lip and immediately fall to the ground. One thing I noticed in particular was 

 that when they struck the horse they were upside down and their tail struck in advance. 

 My idea was that they were a variety of bee. The first one I caught I examined very 

 closely for a sting but could not find any; then I started to squeeze the rear end to 

 see if there were any eggs in the oviduct and did not find any eggs, but to my surprise 

 I squeezed out two stings just below the oviduct shaped exactly like the mandibles of 

 an ant, but considerably stronger and sharp as needles. So I came to the conclusion 

 that was the cause of the horse's antics. The nose files that I was acquainted with in 

 the East were about the size of a house fly but shaped like a bee. You say that only 

 'bees have stings in the tail, and I believe you are right; but when you claim that a 

 nose fly is a bot fly I think you are off. The nose fly is one branch of a large family 

 of stock bees, and the bot fly may also be a branch of the same family, but it is the 

 only one that lays the yellow egg which hatches into the bot Inside the horse's stomach, 

 and it will lay eggs on a horse from heels to ears and sometimes on cattle. It appears 

 to be the strongest flier of any of the family and also the best known. Since coming 

 to Alberta I have made the acquaintance of several other members of the stock bee 

 family. First I will mention the brown-tailed light yellow nose fly; it is about the 

 size of a blue-bottle fly but shaped like a honey bee. It also carried heavy mandibles 

 just below the oviduct; they are sheathed in the body and cannot be seen unless the 

 body is pressed between the thumb and finger, when they expose themselves. 

 8 E.S. 



