48 



King (H. H.). Further Notes on the Bionomics of Tahanm ditaeniatus, 

 Macq., and Tabamis taeniola, P. de B., — Bull. Entom. Research, 

 London, v, pt. 3, December 1914, pp. 247-248, 1 plate. 

 Additional details of the life-cycle of these two flies are given, the 



pupa of T. taeniola and the egg-masses of T. ditaeniatus being described 



and figured. 



Akin (C. V.). An Epidemiological Study of a Plague Focus. — Public 

 Health Reports, Washington, D.C., xxix, no. 52, 25th December 

 1914, pp. 3468-3471, 5 figs. 

 On the 25th September 1914, two plague-infected female rats 

 (Mus norvegicus) were captured in New Orleans in a building used 

 partly as a stable and partly as a junk warehouse. The premises 

 were vacated, rat-prooled and fumigated with sulphur. They were 

 then sprayed with a 2 per cent, solution of kerosene emulsion. About 

 6,000 poison baits were placed. In spite of the burning of 80 lb. of 

 sulphur to not more than 4,200 cubic feet of space (giving 16 per cent. 

 of sulphur dioxide gas), no rats were compelled to leave their hiding 

 place beneath the wooden floor, owing to its imperviousness to the 

 diffusion of gas. A nest of young rats was found when the floor was 

 removed. In spite of the proximity of human beings no cases occurred, 

 which is explained by the great number of rats affording convenient 

 hosts for the fleas, human blood being less attractive at all times. 



MuiR (F.). On the Original Habitat of Stomoxys calcitrans. — Jl. Econ. 

 Entom., Concord, vii, no. 6, December 1914, pp. 459^60. 

 The author differs from Professor C. T. Brues's views as to the dis- 

 tribution of Stomoxys calcitrans, [see this Review, Ser. B, ii, p. 8] ; the 

 species is more likely, in his opinion, to have arisen in the Indo- 

 Ethopian than in the Palaearctic region. S. calcitrans seems to be 

 less abundant in Africa than in many extra-tropical regions, which 

 may be due to the presence of parasites more favoured by the climatic 

 conditions in Africa than in temperate regions. 



Aders (W. M.). Trypanosomiasis. — Zanzibar Protectorate Med. & 

 Sanit. Rept.for 1913, p. 99. [Received 1st January 1915.] 



Only sporadic cases of trypanosomiasis are met with in cattle in 

 the Protectorate of Zanzibar. Tsetse have never been found on the 

 islands and, up to the present, negative results have attended exper- 

 iments undertaken to ascertain whether the commonest blood-sucking 

 flies there, viz : — Stomoxys calcitrans, S. nigra, Tabanus taeniola, and 

 T. fraternus, transmit the disease. The trypanosome concerned 

 has been variously identified by Bruce as Trypanosoma pecorum, and 

 by Laveran as T. congolense. 

 Aders (W. M.). Entomology in relation to Veterinary Science. — 



Zanzibar Protectorate Med. & Sanit. Rept. for 1913, pp. 83-84. 



[Received 1st January 1915.] 

 A noticeable feature of the distribution of ticks in Zanzibar lies 

 in the fact that the local inland herds carry few ticks in comparison 

 with the town ones ; this may be due to the large number of animals 

 imported from the Somali Benadir coast, which are always heavily 

 infested. The Hippoboscid, Lynchia maura. Big., is common on 

 domestic pigeons and the larvae of Oestrus ovis have been obtained 

 from goats. The Nycteribiid, Cyclopodia greeffi, Karsch, is common 

 on flying foxes {Pteropus voeltzkowi). 



