120 MAJOR E. E. AUSTEN. 



most troublesome blood-sucking flies at Tiberias and Nazareth in October are the 

 so-called sand-flies of the genus Phleboiomus (fam. Psychodidae). They occur in 

 large numbers in every house, concealing themselves during the day in ceilings or 

 dark corners to which they retire shortly after sunrise, and commencing their 

 onslaught, which is continued until they retire, at sunset. Although I was unable 

 to find ihe larvae, I obtained indirect evidence that they breed in half-dried algae 

 just above the water level on the sides of open cisterns. Miss S. L. M. Summers, 

 of the London School of Tropical Medicine, who has been kind enough to examine 

 the adult specimens I collected, finds only two species {Ph. papatasi [sic], Scop., and 

 Ph. minutus, Rond.), among them, thus confirming the preliminary diagnosis made in 

 the field. Col. Alcock tells me that he found the same two species, and them only, 

 in a large collection from Aleppo. Phlebotomus apparently occurs at Tiberias 

 practically throughout the year, but at Damascus, in which it is troublesome in 

 summer, it had entirely disappeared before the end of October. I did not obtain 

 Ph. miniiius at Nazareth, and at Tiberias it was much less common than Ph. papatasi." 



Genus et sp. incert. 



At Bir Esani, 24.x. 191 7, in the Wadi Immalaga near its mouth, on a ladleful 

 of water just taken from among bulrushes, the author found a small Psj^chodid 

 with a distinct proboscis and slightly spotted wings. Most unfortunately the 

 specimen, which was quite unlike anything seen before or since, was blown away 

 before it could be secured. 



Family MUSCIDAE. 

 Genus Philaematomyia, Austen. 



Philaematomyia crassirostris, Stein. 



Musca crassirostris, Stein, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, ii, p. 99 (1903) 



Philaematomyia insignis, Austen, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) iii, p. 298, figs, i-iii 

 (1909). 



Eleven ^S' 1^ ??' Latron, close to Jaffa- Jerusalem road. 5.ix.l918 ; 1 $, 

 Tul Keram, 26.ix.1918 {Lt.-Col. {temp. Col) E. P. Seivell. C.M.G., D.S.O., 

 R.A.M.C.). 



^Although from the moment of entering Palestine the writer kept a sharp look- 

 out for this widely-distributed species, it was not met with at all during 1917, and 

 even in 1918 it was not observed until 5th September, when the author took it in 

 abundance on his own person, at Latron. Had cattle been examined, the fl}^ would 

 very possibly have been encountered earlier.* Patton and Cragg,t writing of 

 Philaematomyia insignis, Austen {=Ph. {Musca) crassirostris. Stein), as observed 

 by them in Madras, state that flies of this species " feed almost exclusively upon 

 cattle and ...... only occasionally bite human beings." The present writer's 



experience tends to support this statement. At Latron on the date mentioned he 

 took both sexes of Philaematomyia crassirostris in numbers on his puttees (24 

 specimens — -11 <S,^, 13 $$— were caught without difficulty in a kilhng tube), all the 

 insects being actively engaged in probing the material with their proboscises, evidently 

 in search of nutriment ; while, although the writer's arms were bare and perspiring, 

 only a few specimens settled upon them, and only one of these latter flies (a $) 



* In Galilee, in October 1912, according to Dr. N. Annandale, the present species was " by 

 far the commonest blood-sucking fly on horses and cattle " : — cf. E. Brunetti, " Some Noxious 

 Diptera from Gahlee " (Journ. Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, ix, p. 43, 1913). 



t Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, v, p. 518 (1912). 



