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NOTES ON A HORN-FEEDING LEPIDOPTEBOUS 

 LARVA FROM AFRICA 



By august BUSCK 

 (With Two Plates) 



Among the zoological objects secured by the Smithsonian African 

 Expedition, under the direction of Col. Theodore Eoosevelt, is a skull of 

 a large Water Antelope (Cohus sp.) on the magnificent (over two feet 

 long) horns of which was a large number of curious larvas tubes of a 

 microlepidopteron, Tinea vastella Zellar. 



The skull is evidently not of an animal shot by the party, but was 

 picked up on the ground. It bears the label No. 6825 S. N'guasso Nyiro 

 River, British East Africa, June, 1909. 



The evidence of moth-infestation on the horns was very striking and 

 is well illustrated in the two excellent photographs, reproduced on plates 

 1 and 2, for which I am indebted to Mr. T. W. Smillie. It consists of 

 large bunches of dark brown finger-like tubes each about ^ of an inch 

 in diameter and anywhere from ^ to 24- inches long. These tubes are 

 very tough, being made of silk, into which is incorporated earth and 

 chewed-up fiber of the horn; the interior of the tubes is smooth gray silk. 

 The tubes are closed at their outer end like the fingers of a glove and 

 are connected at their basal end with round holes leading into galleries 

 in the horn, where the larvae found their nourishment. 



Accounts of similar infestations of horns of ruminants have occurred 

 from time to time and they seem particularly common in Africa. 



There has been some difference of opinion among the observers about 

 the possibility of the horns of living ruminants becoming infested and 

 some of the evidence seems sufficiently conclusive that such infestation 

 may occasionally occur. The substance of the horn is the same in the 

 living animal as in the dead, and it seems at least possible that the moth 

 may deposit its eggs on the horns of a resting or sleeping animal, and that 

 the larvae in such case could develop successfully, but this is undoubtedly 

 the exception and the species normally only attacks the horns of dead 

 animals. 



Lord Walsingham has given a review of the subject (Proc-. Ent. Soc, 

 London, 1881, pp. 238-241) but no figure has been given of this infesta- 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Vol. 56, No. 8 



