Semi-Centennial Volume. 73 



species has been given the common name of the turkey gnat. This ap- 

 peared during the time of high water and overflows of the Mississippi 

 river, although no break occurred near the city, and the only freshly 

 inundated land in the vicinity, except in case of the customarily flooded 

 rice fields, merely lay within reach of backwater on the lake. Evi- 

 dently no other places than the submerged shrubby banks of the river had 

 been subjected to a flow of water suitable for the breeding of this fly or 

 any related species, and the single capture attested to an extreme 

 scarcity of the insect. 



SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES. 



Advantage has been taken of the opportunity to append some supple- 

 mentary notes to the preceding discourse whil^ the manuscript of it was 

 being held for publication. The existence of the first series of these 

 records in the entomologist's office at Baton Rouge did not come to the 

 attention of the writer until after the delivery of the former part had 

 been promised, and finally the later accounts were secured. Their ad- 

 dition here affords further interest, and the initial report gives the exact 

 time of the outbreak of black flies to which previous mention has been 

 made on the authority of Dr. W. H. Dalrymple, with reference to St. 

 Landry parish. 



Under date of March 25, 1905, Mr. I. H. Cain of Opelousas, St. Landry 

 jjarish. La., sent specimens of Simuliiim pecuancm Riley, through a firm 

 in New Orleans, and wrote that he and his son and tenants had lost 

 twenty-one head of plow stock within two days owing to attacks by the 

 gnats. He reported that the insects did not appear in all parts of the 

 parish, but they were most severe in a radius of about ten miles. In 

 this area, they killed nearly 200 head of stock before the owners knew 

 what had caused the deaths. Judging from this statement, the pests were 

 local in their distribution. Their attacks, though lasting only a few days 

 at the worst, were generally made early in mornings and late in evenings. 

 On the date of writing, however, not enough of the pests remained to do 

 any more harm. 



As no person living in the infested districts ever saw the particular 

 kind of gnat prior to this occurrence, the owners of stock first believed 

 that their animals suffered and perished from colic. But on learning that 

 the deaths were due to a poisonous effect of bites inflicted by the insects, 

 a mixture called "gnat oil" was applied to the surviving animals and no 

 more stock died, since the treatment kept the flies from biting. Mr. Cain 

 also ventured to say that neither dogs nor buzzards fed on the carcasses, 

 which fact he considered to be strange because the stench of the dead 

 bodies became very offensive before all of them could be burned and de- 

 stroyed. 



In its issue of March 20, 1905, the New Orleans Picayune contained a 

 long article about buffalo gnats occurring at Grand Coteau, in the same 

 parish. 



The following items may be properly introduced here on account of 

 the proximity of the localities to the bounds of Louisiana. The New 

 Orleans Times-Democrat, bearing the date of March 29, 1905. gave a 



