HIPPOBOSCID^. 



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 

 larvte. The body of the larva?, 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 larvtie transform to pupa? immediatel}^ after birth. 



The Forest-fly or Horse-tick, Hippobosca Latreille, has no 

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

 thorax broad, and the proboscis short and 

 thick. 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 Lix)optena, which has ocelli, with 

 only 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, Ornithoviyia, 

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

 are numerous species, all bird parasites. 



* Hippobosca bubonis n. sp. female. Uniform horn color, with a reddish tinge, 

 and blackish hairs; legs paler, with dark tari^i, body beneatli paler; tip of abdo- 

 men black, with long bristles. Lengtii of body ..'50 inch; of a wing M inch. Dif- 

 fers from H. er/uiiKV in being larger, and in its nniform reddish color. Taken Oct. 

 5; Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science. 



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