Eighth Report of the State Entomologist. 195 



The following communication relating to the fly, containing further 

 notes of distribution and other additional information, was made to 

 the Country Gentleman, of September 10, 1891: 



Thi-ee years ago, in the autumn of 1888, the serious injuries to cattle 

 in New Jersey, from the immense number of this biting fly that 

 gathered upon the backs and sides of cattle and sucked their blood, 

 was noticed in several numbers of the Country Getitlemmi. As at 

 that time it had extended southward and westward into Delaware 

 Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, it was thought somewhat 

 strange that it had not been observed in New York. It is now known 

 to have entered our State as early, at least, as the suni'ner of last year, 

 but no published record of its occurrence was made until the present 

 summer, when Mr. J. D. Lyons of Monticello communicated to the 

 June number of Insect Life the statement of its abundance at that 

 place during the preceding autumn, and that it had been first 

 observed by him about the middle of August. Monticello is in Sulli- 

 van county, in the southeastern part of the State, and about twenty 

 miles north of the northern limit of New Jersey. 



On August 24th of this year, I was surprised to have the insect 

 reported to me from Oswego (on the southern curve of Lake Ontario), 

 and so abundantly that on a farm at Demster they were literally cover- 

 ing the backs and shoulders of the cattle, annoying them greatly, and 

 largely reducing the yield of milk. Upon looking at the location of 

 Demster, it was found to be on the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensbui-g 

 railroad, and it therefore seemed probable that the fly had been carried 

 to that remote part of the State b}^ railroad transportation, either upon 

 cattle or in cattle cars. 



The following day a newspaper item noted the presence of the fly 

 on many farms in Catoii, Steuben county, N. Y. — this county beino- at 

 the middle of the southern tier, and the town of Caton, borderino- on 

 Pennsylvania, whence it had doubtless been introduced. 



From the above known localities of this troublesome^insect, there is 

 every probability that it has already been, or very soon will be, largely 

 distributed throughout the State of New York. 



While it will not occasion the alarm that at tended Its first formidable 

 attack upon the cattle in New Jersey — excited by the sensational 

 reports that from the clusters of the fl}^ upon the horns, larvae Avere 

 produced which burrowed into the head and brain, causing death 

 within twenty-four hours — still, its injuries are of such a character 

 that it is ver}^ desirable that proper effort should be made by every 

 dairyman — first, to prevent the attack of the fly, which is followed 



