HIPPOBOSCIDJE. 



417 



edge, the others either aborted or only partially developed. 



They resemble the lice in their parasitic habits, living beneath 



the hairs of vertebrates, especially of bats, and are abundant 



beneath the feathers 



of birds. 



These flies differ 



from all other insects 



in their peculiar mode 



of development, which 



reminds us of the 



intra-uterine life of 



the vertebrate foetus. 



According to Dufour 



and Leuckart they 



have an irregular uterus-like enlargement of the oviduct, which 



furnishes a milk-like secretion for the nourishment of the 



larviie. The body of the larvtx?, for each female produces but 



one or two young, when first hatched is not divided into rings, 

 but is smooth, ovate, egg-like, forming a puparium-like case in 

 which the larvte transform to pup* immediately after birth. 



The Forest-fly or Horse-tick, Hippohosca Latrcille, has no 

 ocelli, with five stout veins on the costal edge of the wing ; 

 thorax broad, and the proboscis short and 

 tliick. We figure a species* of this genus 

 (Fig. 340) which was found on the Great 

 Horned Owl. Its body is much flattened, 

 adapted for its life under the feathers, where 

 it gorges itself with the blood of its host. 

 The genus Lijjoptena^ which has ocelli, with 

 onl}^ three costal veins, a long slender probos- 

 cis, and a small thorax, is remarkable for living in its wing- 

 less state on the Deer, but when the wings are developed it is 

 found on the Grouse (Tetrao). The Bird-tick, Ornithomyia, 

 has ocelli, a short proboscis and six costal veins, and there 

 are numerous species, all bird parasites. 



* Hippohosca bubonis n. sp. female. Uniform horn color, with a rerirli?h tinpre, 

 and blat^kish hairs; legs paler, Avith dai-k tarsi, body beneath paler; tip of abdo- 

 men bla(^k, with long bi'istles. Length of body .30 inch; of a wing .34 inch. Dif- 

 fers from H. er/iiin-e in being larger, and in its uniform reddish color. Taken Oct. 

 5; Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science. 



27 



Fig. 341. 



