74 Kansas Academy of Science. 



report of an abundance of buffalo gnats appearing in and about Vicks- 

 burg, Miss. On the same date, a resident of Rolling Fork, Sharkey 

 county. Miss., a town situated forty-three miles north of Vicksburg, re- 

 ported that buffalo gnats had appeared in large numbers in his vicinity 

 on the 8th or 9th day of the month and lingered for two or three weeks. 

 They killed three head of mules on his plantation and as many as thirty- 

 six head in the neighborhood. 



Through personal inquiries, further particulars were learned concern- 

 ing the appearance of black flies, which followed in the wake of floods 

 due to the late inundations from the Mississippi river and other streams 

 on the low alluvial regions of the northeastern part of Louisiana. The 

 first of these overflows occurred in the spring of 1912, and it covered the 

 country south and west of Lake Providence, East Carroll parish. Just 

 a few miles below this place, the inpour of water originated from a 

 crevasse in the Mississippi levee owing to the high flood stage of the 

 river. This break took place in the middle of April. A resident of 

 Mound, Madison parish, has related that during the period of two months 

 in which the water stood on the land he made several trips in a row boat 

 to Tallulah, the parish seat, situated at a distance of eleven miles by 

 rail from his home. He always started out early in the morning on these 

 trips, but for the first few times after leaving the town and while skirting 

 along close to tracts of timber, he was bothered by numbers of the gnats 

 which bit him viciously and did not desist until the sun had risen high 

 above the horizon. On his return home towards evening, the pests again 

 attacked him in the same manner. He described the insects as being 

 small black flies of a humpbacked shape, which inflicted stinging bites. 



In 1915, when the river rose to the highest point on record, the levee 

 gave way near Newellton in Tensas parish. Although no report has come 

 to hand which can be taken for proof that any black flies were connected 

 with the ensuing flood on the Louisiana side, yet along the submerged 

 lowlands on the opposite margin of the river, particularly at a place 

 called Allen, a station located between Vicksburg and Port Gibson, Miss., 

 several head of mules died from attacks by such insects before the owners 

 discovered the cause of the fatalities. In fact, the pests have generally 

 been encountered every year in that section of country extending back 

 from the mouth of the Big Black river. 



The authority for the statements in the latter cases has further 

 asserted that he noticed a few of the gnats at Tallulah, La., on occasions 

 while the bayou, which passes through the town, was filled with backwater 

 from a flood in the Tensas river during March, 1916. A depth of twelve 

 feet was then attained by the water in the bayou at Tallulah, but the 

 inflow finally receded about April 1, after a duration of three weeks of 

 standing. 



The source of this flood was said to have been in Arkansas, and the 

 flow also overspread Bayou Mason, which defines the western boundary of 

 Madison parish. Specimens of the flies were collected by the party to 

 whom reference has just been made, while he was traveling on a train 

 near Gilbert, Franklin parish. La., at the time of the high water. In this 

 instance, the insects flew inside of the window of the car in which he was 

 seated. Moreover, he has reported that he heard of some loss of stock 



