86 



never been recorded from the wool, or wounds on sheep, until now. 

 The life-history has been carefully studied ; eggs laid at midday 

 were active maggots in six hours ; the maggots on meat are full fed 

 in six days, when they pupate, and the perfect fly emerges on the sixth 

 day after pupation. 



Sheep-maggot flies have been carefully investigated at the newly 

 established Sheep-Maggot Fly Experiment Station near Brewarrina ; 

 one of the most important results of the work done is the discovery 

 of a parasite of CallipJwra rufifacies. This parasite, the adult and 

 larva of which are described, is a Chalcid wasp. Experiment shows 

 that it is an effective parasite of the fly larvae and pupae, and it breeds 

 very readily under artificial conditions, attacking the fly at an early 

 stage, before it has seriously damaged the wool. Its life cycle occupied 

 in some cases four weeks, but in others only eleven days. 



Legendre (J.). Le Paludisme d Tananarive. [Malaria at Antanana- 

 rivo.] — Bull. Soc. Path. Exot., Paris, vii, no. 2, 11th Feb. 1914, 

 pp. 105-109. 



For several months the author made investigations on malaria at 

 Antananarivo, where this disease has been present to a serious extent 

 for about ten years. The results are summarised in two tables, from 

 which it is seen that the rice fields of the plain are much less malarious 

 than those of the hill districts, the greatest contrast being between 

 Nosipatrana, a village on the edge of a large irrigated plain, where 

 30 per cent, of the children examined were suffering from malaria, and 

 Ambohimiandra where 100 per cent, were attacked by the disease. It 

 was found that the rice fields of the large plain Betsimisaraka, irrigated 

 by canals derived from streams, were frequented by a fish, Carassino 

 auratus, but those of the hillside, watered by springs and rain, were 

 entirely destitute of fish, since there is no communication with the 

 main streams. Predaceous aquatic insects are equally distributed 

 in all the rice fields and greatly reduce the number of Anopheles larvae. 

 Beyond the absence of fish, the author could find no other cause why 

 malaria should be so much more prevalent on the hills than in the 

 plain. The advantage gained by the villages being on the hills is lost 

 because of the arrangement of the rice fields in terraces and the fact 

 that, being above the elevation of the plain, irrigation cannot be em- 

 ployed. Certain measures w^ere proposed with a view to reducing the 

 intensity of malaria in these districts, namely, the periodic drying of 

 the rice fields and the stocking of the fields with fish. From these 

 observations it is seen that malaria is confined to the rice fields, and in 

 Antananarivo at least half the rice fields are on the hills. In all places 

 where the fields are arranged in terraces on the side of the hills, malaria 

 is intense. 



GiRAULT (A. A.). Naphthalene and Fleas. — Entom. News, Philadelphia, 

 XXV, no. 3, March 1914, pp. 130-131. 



The author says that napthalene, powdered and rubbed into the 

 fur of domestic animals, is a means of ridding them of fleas ; the fleas 

 emerge from the fur in a lethargic condition and are easily killed. 

 Napthalene seems to affect the health of the animal for a few hours 

 or days, making it also lethargic, but this effect is not dangerous. 



