112 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



get in at the cow during the night. A similar trap set in a stable 

 window on a farm on the Magothy River, Maryland, the stable stand- 

 ing in the edge of the woods near a spring and brook, caught thousands 

 of the black or deer flies which were troubling the stock. 



In Figs. 1 and 2, which, as stated, are of a first model, it would have 

 been better to have made the folds nearer the top, since the week's 

 catch has choked most all the entrance holes with dead flies. 



Here is a trap, the simplest in construction I am able to imagine, 

 which any farmer can make with a little box lumber and screen wire, 

 which will pick up the breeders as fast as they come to the premises, 

 not only of the common house flies but stable and horn flies, black 

 flies and mosquitoes and possibly bot flies. It is still in its experimen- 

 tal stages, but it looks as if it might help to solve some of our most 

 pressing fly problems. 



THE STABLE FLY (STOMOXYS CALCITRANS L.), AN IMPOR- 

 TANT LIVE STOCK PEST 



By F. C. BisHOPP i 



The stable fly has long been known as an insect injurious to domestic 

 animals. Considering its almost cosmopolitan distribution and close 

 relation to man, it is strange that so little information has been pub- 

 lished on the species. For about half a century practically nothing 

 except unimportant and scattered notes were published on this insect 

 until the appearance of Doctor Newstead's work on "The Life History 

 of Stomoxys calcitrans Linn."' published in the Journal of Economic 

 Biology in 1906. Since the appearance of this paper the important 

 work of Professor Porchinsky, "Recherches Bibliogiques sur le Sto- 

 moxys calcitrans L_. et Biologic comparee des Mouches Coprophagues," 

 was published in 1910. A note of much economic interest was also 

 published in 1909 in the Bulletin de la Societe National d^ Acclimation de 

 France by Lucien Iches. 



The recent attention which has been given to the role played by 

 insects in the transmission of disease has led many investigators to 

 consider the possibility of Stomoxys acting as vector of a number of 

 diseases of live stock and man. The work of several investigators 

 indicates that the stable fly takes a more or less important part in the 

 transmission of surra of domestic animals, a trypanosomiasis in cattle 

 in Portugese East Africa, souma (Trypanosoma cazalhoui) of the ox, 

 horse and sheep, T. pecaudia of hogs, cats, etc., and anthrax in domestic 

 animals and man. Other workers believe that the fly may in some 



Published by permission of the Chief of the Bureau of Entomology. 



