NOTES OX BLOOD-SUCKING FLIES IN GRENADA 261 



by the sea, about one lumdred yards from my office and about the same distance 

 from the Yaws Hospital. Once have I found Stegomyia larvae in a wikl pine, in 

 which also were larvae of Wyeomyia pertineus. 



The houses of the people throughout the Island are for the most part closely 

 surrounded by arboreal growth, which possibly is iniinical to the existence of 

 Slexjomyia. The larvae also are a very sweet morsel to Meyarrhitvis larvae in cap- 

 tivity, and probably if a benighted Stegomyia lays her eggs in the tree-holes and wild 

 pines frequented by the Megarrhimis the larvae will have little chance of reaching 

 maturity. 



Thus, in (irenada, the control of Steyoinyiu fascuda is mainly a matter of efficient 

 sanitary administration in the towns ; and domestic care in the country should meet 

 with ready success in eradicating this mosquito. 



The imagines of both sexes readily gorge themselves on sugar and syrup, which 

 they prefer to fruits. FertiUsation takes place in captivity ; and once, on pinning 

 out a female after being chloroformed, a dozen eggs were spasmodically ejected : 

 several reached the floor, while seven were caught stuck together, end to end. When 

 feeding some Anophelines on blood, this and other Steyomyme were along with them, 

 and she may have tasted blood, though not observed to do so. I have not otherwise 

 succeeded in getting captive Stegomyia to suck blood, and believe this fertilisation 

 followed on sugar feeding alone. I have attempted to repeat the experiment, but 

 without success. Stegomyia fasciata certainlv bites bv dav, and no doubt also in the 

 dark. 



Cuhxfatigans, Wied., is found in wayside pools and ditches, and more certainly if 

 these are foul. I have captured numbers of insects in a pit closet privy, the pit of 

 which was open to the entrance of rain-water, and have secured abundant larvae also 

 from an unprotected pit used for the deposit of human excreta, which was flooded 

 with storm-water. 



Filariasis in an acute form is not known at present in CTrenada, though several 

 patients with morbid conditions diagnosed as filariasis have been reported, who 

 may previously have acquired infection elsewhere. In about a thousand blood- 

 smears examined for relative blood count and for malaria, no filaria has been dis- 

 covered, and examination of the blood of several suspected filariasis cases has revealed 

 none. 



Limatus durhami, Theo., is perhaps the most ubiquitous mosquito in Grenada. 

 Its larvae may be found readily from an elevation of four hundred feet — and probably 

 as low as the cacao extends — usually in old cacao pods, and in fallen palm-leaf petioles 

 and in the flower spathes of palms in the forest at 2,300 feet elevation. I have also 

 found larvae just within the edge of cacao growth near the kitchen door of my 

 residence, in a broken bottle, a typical Stegomyia receptacle. 



The larvae are not unlike those of Stegomyia fasciata and hang almost vertically 

 in the Avater ; they move about up and down with a gentle motion and not with 

 the excited complete WTiggle of S. fasciata. They hatch out readily in captivity, and 

 the imagines feed on sugar and syrup. The insect in nature bites in the day time ; 

 I have caught a gorged female on the arm of a maid in the house at 1 p.m., and have 

 seen one trying to feed on my own bare arm under tiie full middav -nii in the plantation. 



