215 



that the disease as described dithers in many points from dengue 

 fever, but, on the other hand, corresponds in every essential with the 

 fever descril)ed in the previous jxipcr by McKechnie and by himself 

 as a fever of the typhus g,vonp, probably carried by a tick. He 

 hopes that further light may be thrown on this (juestion, and reuiarks 

 that a similar fever was described a few years ago by McNaught in 

 South Africa. 



Trvon (H). Special Cattle Fatality in the Maranoa District, and its 

 Relation to the Larvae of I'/ciygophonts unalis, Costa. — Qiiccns- 

 laiid A'^i-ic. /I:; Brishtntc, xv'i, pt. 3, September 1921, pp. 208-216 

 2 plates. 



A fatal disease of cattle in the Maranoa district results from their 

 eating the larvae of a sawllx', Plerygophonis unalis, Costa, which is 

 fully described in this paper. 



The silver-leaved ironbark tree {Eiicalypliis inclaiwphloia) is the 

 principal food-plant. Twelve or more eggs are laid at a time in the 

 tissue between the leaf surfaces in a row along the leaf-edge. The 

 larvae feed on the leaves and when mature, late in June, the}^ crawl 

 to the ground, congregating in fieaps at the base of the tree. They 

 enter the soil to pupate, and they are still gregarious in this stage, 

 except in sandy .soil. Ordinarily the adults emerge late in August 

 or in September, but under drought conditions much later. 



The natural enemies of this pest include opossums, which feed on the 

 leaves on which the eggs are deposited. Unfortunately numbers of 

 opossums have been destroyed in recent years, which accounts for the 

 prevalence of the sawfly. A Tachinid fly parasitises the larvae, and 

 insectivorous birds, which occur in numbers locally, are also 

 powerful checks. Under drought conditions pupation is retarded, 

 and the larvae often succumb to fungus and other diseases, while 

 wet weather kills them before they enter the ground. 



Cattle congregate at the foot of the trees, and eagerly consume 

 the insects, chiefly dead and decaying ones, in preference to grass. 

 This abnormal appetite is perhaps due to some factor of diet deficiency ; 

 in one paddock, which had been salted, the cattle ignored the sawfly 

 larvae.. Cattle of all ages are affected and they usually die within 

 two or three days, though some have been known to survive. The 

 symptoms apparently were not those of a local irritation such 

 as arises from the consumption of hairy caterpillars, but rather 

 those of a general toxaemia. Cattle should be removed from 

 pastures where the food-plant grows, or the latter should be destroyed 

 on land permanently devoted to grazing. Boughs placed at the 

 bases of the trees will prevent cattle from reaching the insects, and 

 spraying the masses of larvae with a strongly odorous substance or 

 bone-oil might make them repeUent. Investigations should be 

 undertaken for the direct treatment of cattle. 



Johnston- (T. H.) & Tiegs (O. W .). New and little-known Sarco- 

 phagid Flies from South Eastern Queensland, /^/oc. A'. Soc. 



Qitccnsland, Byisbane, xxxiii, no. 4, 18th |uly 1921, pp. 46-90, 

 26 figs. [Received 31st October 1921.] 



The literature on the various species of Sarcophagid flies from 

 Queensland is reviewed in this paper. The following are described : 

 Hdicobia australis, sp. n., bred from decaying meat ; Sarcophaqa 



