74 



in the Palni, Shevaroy, and Nilgiri Hills. The female is attracted by 

 the smell of food, especially meat, and readily oviposits on stale 

 cooked or uncooked meat. In nature it breeds in the dead bodies of 

 birds and small animals, its larvae being most efficient scavengers. 

 Both sexes are commonly infected with Herpetomonas mirahilis and 

 H. muscae-domesticae. 



Chrysomyia megacephala, F. {dux, Esch.) occurs throughout India, 

 Burma, Assam and Ceylon, and has recently been found by Froggatt 

 in the New Hebrides. It is also recorded from Guinea and Java. 

 It is primarily a necrophagous fly, and breeds in a variety of food- 

 stuffs, but chiefly in decomposing animal matter. It apparently only 

 occasionally lays eggs on diseased tissues of animals. Both sexes are 

 commonly infected with H. mirahilis and H. muscae-domesticae. 



Chrysomyia nigriceps, sp. n., rarely enters houses, breeding chiefly 

 in dead bodies of birds and small animals. It has been taken at an 

 elevation of about 2,000 ft. 



C. alhiceps, Wied., apparently only breeds in animals after decom- 

 position is well advanced ; C. rufifacies, Guer., from Australia, 

 is identical with it. It is suggested that the habit of ovipositing in 

 soiled wool, as recorded from Australia, may have been acquired as 

 a result of the abundance of other larvae, which would form the normal 

 food for the third stage larvae of C. albiceps. 



C. villeneuvei, sp. n., has only been found by the author in Coonoor. 

 The breeding habits have been observed by laj^ng out decomposing 

 bodies of rabbits as baits. The eggs are laid in small batches among 

 the eggs of other Calliphorinae, and the second and third stages feed 

 on the larvae of other blow-flies and those of Sarcophaga sp. 



The distribution of Lucilia pidchra, Wied. (ruficornis, Macq.) 

 in India is not known. It appears to be essentially a flower and fruit 

 juice feeder, the females being commonly found at Coimbatore in July, 

 feeding on the fruit of the Neem tree. 



Lucilia ballardi, sp. n., is widely distributed in South India, and is 

 frequently seen feeding on human excrement. The eggs are apparently 

 only laid in decomposing animal matter. 



All the stages of the various species dealt with are described. 



SiNTON (J. A.). Entomological Notes on Field Service in Waziristan. — 



Ind. Jl. Med. Res., Calcutta, ix, no. 3, January 1922, pp. 575- 

 585. 



The following species of Phlebotomus were captured in the Waziristan 

 area during the summer and autumn of 1919 and the spring of 1920 : 

 P. papatasii, P. minutus, P. minutus var. antennatus and P. sergenti. 

 P. papatasii seems the most common species in the early part of the 

 year, and P. minutus in the autumn, though further observations 

 are necessary to confirm this. Individuals of P. papatasii were first 

 taken on 8th March, and soon afterwards became very numerous. 

 Within a few days of the first recorded appearance of Phlebotomus, 

 cases of sand-fly fever began to occur. P. papatasii occurs in greater 

 abundance in cowsheds, while in human habitations P. minutus 

 appears to be the predominant species. 



P. sergenti has now been recorded from Algeria, Mesopotamia, the 

 Caucasus, Persia, the North-west Frontier of India and Lahore, all 

 of which are places where oriental sore is prevalent. 



