12 THE EARLY STAGES OF TABANID^ 



ical Survey, Ohio Naturalist, Ohio Academy of Science) ; later the 

 connection with agriculture was established, first in Mine's Report on 

 the Tabanidae of the Gulf Coast (1903), then in his Habits and life 

 histories of some flies of the family Tabanidas (1906), in which the 

 early stages of Tabanus lasio phthalmus , and some others, are given 

 for the first time. The Tabanid£e, long known as a stock pest, were 

 at about that time suspected of carrying infectious cattle diseases 

 (anthrax and surra), as was evident from Salmon and Stiles' Emer- 

 gency report on surra published in 1902 in connection with a small 

 outbreak of surra in the United States following the importation of 

 Indian zebu cattle. The interest taken by entomologists in Hine's 

 work called forth some smaller publications in America, as in 1908 

 that of Walton, containing descriptions of the early stages of Goniops 

 chrysocoma, a peculiar species, and in 1909 that of Brimley, with notes 

 on the early stages of several other Tabanidse, one of them Tabanus 

 fronto, being terrestrial in habit. On Goniops chrysocoma, under the 

 auspices of the United States Department of Agriculture, a more 

 detailed study was made by McAtee in 1911.^ On the other hand, 

 in methods of control of Tabanidae, some progress was made by the 

 work of Portschinsky in Russia, in 1908; Lecaillon in 1905 in France; 

 and Paoli in 1907 in Florence, also undertook studies on Tabanidae, 

 which apparently were stimulated by work already done on this sub- 

 ject in America, Lecaillon referring to Hart, and Paoli, while resuming 

 the problem of Graber's organ, working at an agricultural school where 

 he undoubtedly received Hine's publications. Lecaillon's work (1905), 

 which acquaints us with the egg-laying habits of Tabanus quatuorno- 

 tatus, cites the observations on this species made by Kollar in 1854. 

 The progress made in the meantime by the Vienna school is, however, 

 ignored by him, which we understand if we realize that the wars of 

 1866 and 1870 had destroyed cooperation to some extent. The only 

 new author cited by Lecaillon is Hart, who, as we have stated, did 

 not quote the literature. At the same time, Lecaillon (1905) and 

 Hine (1906) are perhaps the first writers in whom the influence of 

 medicine on entomology is perceptible. The part that insects play 

 in the transmission of disease, the theory of v/hich is intimately con- 



^ Specimens of the larva of this species had been found before by Pergande. 



