INSECTS INFESTING DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 351 



the mouth by the horse h'cking or biting the place where the 

 egg has been deposited ; it then passes down the horse's throat 

 with the food. After reaching the stomach, it attaches itself 

 to the inner lining by means of two curved hooks with which 

 the head is provided. Here it remains until fully grown, 

 when it lossens its hold and is carried onward and expelled 

 with the excrements. Upon reaching the earth it at once 

 buries itself, and soon contracts to a reddish-brown pupa, 

 from which the perfect fly issues in the course of a few weeks. 



Fig. 362. — Horse Bot-fi}', female — colors, 

 gray, black and yellow. Fig. 362. 



The perfect fly (Figs. 361 and 362) is of 

 a pale yellowish color, spotted with red, 

 the thorax banded with black or red, and 

 the ^v'ings, whieli are only two in number, 

 are of a whitish color reflecting a golden 

 tint, and are crossed by a dark band with 

 two reddish spots at the tips. 



Figuier writes : " In fact, it is not in the egg state, but really 

 in that of the larva, that the horse, as we shall explain, takes 

 into his stomach these parasitical guests to which nature has 

 allotted so singular an abode. When licking itself the horse 

 carries them into his mouth, and afterward swallows them 

 with his food, by which means they enter the stomach. It is 

 a remarkable fact that is sometimes seen, other insects, as the 

 Tahani. for instance, that by their repeated stinging cause the 

 horse to lick himself and thus to receive his most cruel enemy. 

 In the perilous journey they have to perform from the skin of 

 the horse to his stomach, many of the larvse of the (Estrus, 

 as may be supposed, are destroyed — ground by the teeth of 

 the animal, or crushed by the alimentary substance." 



Symptoms shown by a horse seriously infested by bots : He 

 does not eat heartily, and therefore loses flesh, and has a stiff" 

 and staggering walk, and to use a common phrase, appears 

 "consumptive." 



Remedies. — To prevent the eggs from reaching the horse's 

 mouth, clean off" daily by scraping. There exists a vast dif- 

 ference of opinion in regard to remedies ; some persons rec- 

 ommend drenching with oils and bleeding ; others claim that 



