78 REVIEW — TROPICAL MEDICINE, ETC. 



Flies— Notes are added on Calliphora erythrocephala, the " Blow-fly." It feeds on the faeces of 



cmitiiiued man to a greater extent than the house-fly, and is very partial to fruits of various kinds, 

 hence it is very likely to be a vector of disease. 



Franklin' writes with Indian experience. He thinks that there the house-fly breeds in 

 great numbers in night-soil and not in the vicinity of cook-houses, which apparently only 

 constitute its feeding grounds. He has made observations on these terrible pests, owl 

 midges, which, if confirmed, are likely to be helpful, for he finds that these so-called " moth- 

 flies " (in Khartoum they are always, though erroneously, termed sand-flies), breed out in 

 material taken from the neighbourhood of cook-houses, for example, what is found in the 

 drain at the back of cook-houses. He describes the larviE and pupae, and imagines from 

 some experiments, it would seem, that these tiny diptera can, like the house-fly, carry about 

 excrementitious material. 



Another Indian paper is that by Major F. Smith, who draws attention to a very 

 important matter as regards the tropics, namely, the breeding out of M. entxniata and 

 Anthomijia tonitrui in scattered deposits of human fteces, and the occurrence of maggots of 

 these flies in the soil under the fcecal masses. As the faeces dry and crumble, the maggots bury 

 themselves in the earth, finding a passage by way of cracks or the holes made by worms or 

 dung-beetles. They were found to take about 14 days to hatch out. 



Dog excrement was also found to serve as a breeding-place for M. entseniata, which, be it 

 noted, haunts houses and hospital wards. Cow-dung and earth under it harboured maggots 

 of M. dumesiica and M. enteeniata, while horse and donkey dung yielded larvte of M. domestica, 

 but did not seem to be a very favourite breeding-ground, at least in dry weather. 



Experiments seemed to show that house-flies did not breed in ordinary ground as 

 distinguished from organic deposits. 



The question of flies and their breeding-places, as regards Khartoum, will be discussed 

 under " Sanitary Notes." One need only note here that Major Smith's observations apply 

 to the Sudan as well as to India. They have been amply confirmed by Mr. King. 



Passing now to biting-flies, we find a reference to the work of Legaillon- on the life- 

 history of Tahanus quatuornotatns. This is of Special interest in view of King's work on 

 T. bignttatiis in tlie Sudan. 



The eggs are laid in bunches in places that may be either dry or moist, for instance, on 

 the leaves of plants, and are at first white, but soon darken. As is already known, some 

 larvae may be aquatic and others terrestrial, while their habits are carnivorous. The eggs of 

 the species under consideration hatched out in 14 days (in June), and are white and 

 transparent. They feed on dead prey and on organic detritus, and perhaps even on sluggish, 

 living animals. They can live under varied conditions of moisture and even in water. 



One can only give some references to other papers or works on biting diptera. Thus 

 there is Austen's beautifully illustrated work on the British Blood-sucking Flies, while 

 Bouvier has a good paper in the Annales de Vlnstitut Pasteur of 25th July, 1906. Dudgeon 

 deals with the biting-flies of the West Coast and the Niger in the Journal of Tropical 

 Medicine for 1st November, 1906, and 15th November, 1906, and Newstead with those of 

 the Congo Free State in the Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology of 1st February, 

 1907. (Series T.M., Vol. I., No. 1). 



A German work by Griinberg is entitled " Die Blutsaugenden Diptera," while a 

 French paper by Surcouf, with coloured plates, occurs in the Archives de Parasitologie for 

 1st August, 1907. (Tome XI., No. 3) 



Picard"* gives the distribution of the following species of Stomoxys which are found in 

 Tropical Africa : S. calcttrans, L. ; iS'. Korogwensis, Griinberg ; S. honffardi, Picard ; 

 S. inornata, Griinberg ; S. glaiica, Griinberg. 



[Those interested in the distribution of Tabanid:e will find a list of those which occur in Angola given by 

 Wellman in the Journal of Tropical. Molicine and Hygiene for April 15th, 1908, p. 117, while Austen deals with new 

 African Tabanidie in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, for March, 1908. In the same journal 

 Miss Ricardo commences a descriptive paper on 30 new species from Africa and Madagascar, which is continued 

 and completed in the April number.] 



' Franklin, G. D. (September, 1906), " Some Observations on the Breeding-Ground of the Common 

 House-Fly, and a Description of a Species of Moth-Fly." Indian Medical Oazctlr, p. 349, Vol. XLI. 



^ Legaillon, A. (February loth, 1906), "Egg Deposition and tlie Darval Life of the Tabanidte." Juarnul of 

 Tropical Medicine, p. 58, Vol. IX. 



"• Picard, F. (1907), " Sur quelques Stomoxys de rAfrinue occidentale," Sail. Soc. Entomol. de France, 

 No. 18, p. 312. 



• Article not consulted in the original. 



