202 



Thirty Hies tested refused to feed on the iirst day of emergence, 

 three fed upon the second day and the remainder took their first 

 meal on the third and fourth days. Flies under observation were 

 found usually to bite not more than once in two days. The 

 cases which occurred of biting on consecutive days were con- 

 sidered to be abnormal. The attitude of the fly and the manner 

 of inserting the proboscis is carefully described. The bites appear 

 to be very painful to the host and the insect is never satisfied with 

 a single bite, but makes several punctures before a complete meal 

 is obtained. This may possibly be due to the interruptions caused 

 by the tormented animal, and the fly may have acquired the habit 

 of making short swift stabs in order to facilitate its escape from 

 the host. T. striatus bites cattle and carabaos and the author 

 says that during more than two years of personal observation he 

 has never known it to annoy man in the Philippine Islands. 

 Reported attacks can usually be attributed to Stovioxys, which 

 frequently annoys the natives in charge of draught animals. 

 The author has seen sparsely-haired carabaos with their bodies 

 covered with droplets of dried blood resulting from the bites of 

 Tabanids and he has been able to collect 61 specimens of 

 T. striatus from a single carabao in less than 15 minutes. 



The fly usually begins to bite between T and 8 o'clock in the 

 morning and is again active between 3.30 and 6 o'clock in the 

 afternoon. The rain trees before mentioned have been observed 

 to harbour T. striatus of both sexes at all hours of the day and 

 far into the night. If the weather be windy they congregate 

 together on the side of the trunk protected from the wind. When 

 very numerous they come into the houses and are usually to be 

 found on the windows. The seasonal prevalence of the fly in 1912 

 was as follows : — Appreciable numbers were first seen on August 

 15th. From that date to 4th September males predominated in 

 the proportion of two or three to one female, but shortly after- 

 wards the female count increased to the proportion of one male to 

 1'7 females. Females preponderated to the extent of three to 

 one in October and four or five to one in December. The first 

 appearance of mammalian blood in collected flies was found on 

 4th September, although cattle had been present for eight days 

 previously, and from 4th to 6th September the majority of the 

 females collected contained blood. The first date of oviposition 

 was on 11th September. 



MiTZMAiN (M. B.). The Mechanical Transmission of Surra by 

 Tnhanus striatus, Fabricus. — PJiiiippiiie .11. of Science, 

 Manila, viii, Ser. B, no. 3, June 1913, pp. 223-229. 



The author says that recent work has practically eliminated 

 Stornoxys calcitrans from further consideration as an important 

 factor in surra dissemination in the Philippine Islands and in 

 this paper he records the results of experiments on the direct 

 transmission of the disease by T. striatus. The flies were first 

 allowed to bite an infected horse or guineapig for about 45 

 seconds and were then transferred to a healthy animal and allowed 



