38 



and cotton seeds planted. Thirteen days after the taking of the soil 

 an adult P. papatasii was noticed in one of the jars ; it had newly 

 emerged and the empty pupal case was close to it. Examination 

 revealed the presence of several pupae in similar situations in botli 

 jars, and for the next few days fresh pupae and adults were continually 

 being observed. The pupal period in tw^o cases was nine days. It is 

 obvious that immature larvae must have been present in the soil when 

 it was first placed in the jars, as it was thirteen days before the first 

 adult was seen. 



The author has taken adult sand-flies in crevices in rocks in the beds 

 of streams, and in holes in trees, etc., but in the northern desert 

 provinces they are sometimes met with in myriads, sufficiently far 

 from any building or rock to preclude the possibility of their having 

 come from it. Tokar, the centre of a cotton-growing area of 30,000- 

 40,000 acres, is an example of this : in the cotton-fields as many as 

 fifteen adults may be found under a single clod of earth. The waiter 

 has endeavoured to sleep in the desert, outside the town of Berber, 

 and found that sleep was rendered almost impossible by sand-flies. 

 By observations made in these and in other localities in the Anglo- 

 Egyptian Sudan, the author is led to believe that in devising any scheme 

 for the destruction of the breeding places of sand-flies one will have 

 to take into consideration all tracts of soil containing cracks and a 

 certain amount of moisture. [Cf. this Review, 8er. B, i, pp. 27, 132, 

 221.] 



Hirst (L. F.). Identification of Rat-Fleas in Colombo. — Brit. Med. 

 Jl, 10th Jan. 1914, p. 85. 



The authcjr says that in February 1912 he began a systematic 

 examination of the rats, principally Mus raft us, caught by the principal 

 rat-catchers in the city of Colombo ; collections of Siphonaptera 

 and also of small acarine rat parasites were also made from live rats. 

 The fleas have been identified by the Hon. N. C. Rothschild as 

 Xenopsylla astia (Roths.), a species first described by him from 

 specimens caught in Rangoon. The author also obtained collections 

 of rat fleas from Madras and they have also been, identified as X. astia 

 (Roths.), and he draws attention to the fact that in the 7th report 

 on plague investigations in India (Dec. 1912) it is stated that the only 

 rat flea found in Madras is A', cheopis. According to the author 

 X. astia rarely bites man at temperatures above 80° F., but will do 

 so readily between 70° and 80° F., as also the control rats. 



Plague is endemic in Rangoon, but not in S. India or Ceylon, and 

 no epidemic has yet occurred in Colombo, nor, despite the suscep- 

 tibility of the Madras rats to infection, has there been one of any 

 importance in that city in recent times. The author suggests that an 

 investigation into the relative distribution of X. cheopis and X. astia 

 in 8. India and Burma and also into their relative infectivity as plague- 

 carriers, would throw light on the epidemiology of plague. 



HiXDLE (E.). The Flight of the House F\y.— Proc. Cambridge Phil. 

 Soc, Cambridge, xvii, pt. 4, 30th Jan. 1914, pp. 310-313. 



During the months of July, August and September 1912, the author 

 in conjunction with Mr. Gordon Merriman, conducted an extensive 



