158 



■"•^he buffalo gnat in his natural state is about one -half as large as the 

 common house fly. They make their appearance in early spring. A few 

 days, — with the temperature from forty to fifty degrees — is apt to bring 

 them. They cannot exercise when the temperature is 32°, but will come 

 immediately upon the weather's getting warmer. Rain and wet weather 

 will down him for awhile. His life varies as to the weather. One week of 

 clear weather, with the temperature from 70 to 80 degrees, ends his exist- 

 ence. Generally they last from four to six weeks. They are very severe 

 on all kinds of stock, and run the cattle and hogs, and drive them to the 

 open ground, where the wind and hot sun has a tendency to drive the 

 gnats down. They have been known to kill horses by blood sucking, and, 

 when full of blood, are about as big as two house flies. They never attack 

 a man. 



"As a preventive, we use coal oil, rubbing it on the horse's head, neck, 

 breast and flanks, as these are the parts generally attacked. 



" Yours truly, Dr. R. A. J." 



At least two species of Simulium occur in the Wabash River, near New 

 Harmony, Posey county, in what is known as the Cut Off. This cut oft 

 has existed since Ijsfore the country was settled, though, in an earlier day 

 it was much narrower and used as a mill race, an oil painting by LeSuer, 

 showing it as it appeared :it an early day, is yet in possession of a son of 

 Robert Dale Owen, residing at New Harmony. The channel has widened 

 of late years, the bottom being rocky as of old, and at the lower extremity 

 filled with rocks and bowlders, over and among which the water flows ver\ 

 swiftly. A number of head of stock were killed by gnats in this vicinity 

 in 1884, and they were quite troublesome in the spring of 1890. On June 

 12th of the latter year I caught adults in the vicinity, belonging, without 

 much doubt, to Simulium 2JecKariim, Riley, and feel quite sure that S. 

 meridionale, Riley, also occurs there. From the number of pupa shells 

 that, at the time of my visit, were attached to willows and branches of 

 trees which had been inundated in spring, I judge that adults had been 

 quite numerous, Larvae were also found in the swifter flowing portions 

 of the stream, but in limited numbers. 



It appears somewhat strange that the only species of Simulia described 

 hy Thomas Say, for a long time a resident of New Harmony, should be ac- 

 corded to Ohio, his specimens being from Ohio Falls, near Louisville, Ken- 

 tucky. It would now appear almost impossible that they should not have 

 inhabited the lower Wabash, while he was engaged in his entomological 

 labors and within sight of the locality where they now occur. An almost 

 parallel case is found in the chinch bug, which Say described in 1831 from 



