HIPPOBOSCID^. 



417 



Fig. 340. 



edge, the others either aborted or only partially developed. 

 They resemble the lice in their parasitic habits, living beneath 

 the hairs of vertebrates, especially of bats, and are abundant 

 beneath the feathers 

 of bh'ds. 



These flies difier 

 from all other insects 

 in their peculiar mode 

 of development, which 

 reminds us of the 

 intra-uterine life of 

 the vertebrate foetus. 

 According to Dufour 

 and Leuckart they 

 have an irregular uterus-like enlargement of the oviduct, which 

 furnishes a milk-like secretion for the nourishment of the 

 larvae. The body of the larvae, for each female produces but 

 one or two young, when first hatched is not divided into rings, 

 but is smooth, ovate, egg-like, forming a puparium-like case in 

 which the larvee transform to pupae immediately after birth. 



The Forest-fly or Horse-tick, Hippohosca Latreille, has no 

 ocelli, with five stout veins on the costal edge of the wing ; 

 thorax broad, and the proboscis short and 

 thick. We figure a species* of this genus 

 (Fig. 340) which was found on the Great 

 Horned Owl. Its body is much flattened, 

 adapted for its life under the feathers, where 

 it gorges itself with the blood of its host. 

 The genus Lipoptena, which has ocelli, with 

 only three costal veins, a long slender probos- rig. 341. 

 cis, and a small thorax, is remarkable for living in its wing- 

 less state on the Deer, but when the wings are developed it is 

 found on the Grouse (Tetrao). The Bird-tick, Ornithomyki, 

 has ocelli, a short proboscis and six costal veins, and there 

 are numerous species, all bird parasites. 



* Hippohosca bubonis n. sp. female. Uniform horn color, with a reddish tinge, 

 and blackish hairs; legs paler, Avith dark tar.si, body beneath paler; tip of abdo- 

 men black, with long bristles. Length of body .30 inch ; of a wing ..34 inch. Dif- 

 fers from H. equiwe in being larger, and in its uniform reddish color. Taken Oct. 

 5; Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science. 



27 



