November — December i 



:•] 



PSrCHE. 



113 



author Iiimself should know that other 

 American flies do have a similar range 

 of habitat, to sav nothing of the nearly 

 allied JShtsca domestica. 



The specimens which Professor Snow 

 sent me for examination, although some- 

 \vhat injured, certainly seem to me to 

 be CoDipsoiiiyia maccUaria (Fal).) E. 

 Lch. A. The species mav, with toler- 

 able certaint\ , be recognized by its hav- 

 ing a bright metallic green or coppery 

 color on the abilomen and thorax, the 

 latter above with three black stripes ; 

 tiic Iiristle of the antennae feathered to 

 the tip, and the head, except the eyes, 

 chieflv yelliiw. In size it varies from 

 seven to ten millimetres. 



However, these systematic details will 

 be of less interest than the following, 

 which I translate from the Spanish of 

 ArribAlzaga^ : 



"During the pleasant days of spring 

 or the hotter ones of summer, these flies 

 may be seen covering in great numbers, 

 now umbelliferous flowers, now all sorts 

 of filth ; or, resting, there glistens in the 

 SLHilight the iridescent surface of their 

 half-opened wings, and the blue, the 

 green, the violet, the C(jpper and the 

 gold of their metallic colored bodies." 



"Our fly deposits its eggs, commonly 

 called ^qiiercsa^ in dead bodies, in 

 manure, in fresh meat reserved for food, 

 and soon there appear immense num- 

 bers of voracious larvae that rapidly 

 consume the objects in which has-begun 

 their active life. Not content with these 

 habits, common to all tlie species of 



•* Anales dc la s<)C. ciciitifica argentiiia, v. lo, p. S0-S4. 



the group to which it pertains, it de- 

 posits the germs of its posterity in the 

 wounds of men and of animals, at the 

 entrance of openings of the human face, 

 and, in its anxiety for propagation, will 

 deposit them in the wool of sheep." 



"Azara was, I believe, the first ob- 

 server who noted cases of human my- 

 iasis in South America. Cocpicrel, many 

 years later, c;dled the attention of phy- 

 sicians and naturalists to the frequent 

 anil fatal accidents which this evil pro- 

 duces among the exiles of Cayenne : 

 according to this author. Dr. Chapuis, 

 physician-in-chief of the French marine, 

 attended one case in which the larvae 

 of C. tnacellaria had penetrated to the 

 frontal sinuses, causing the death of the 

 patient ; also one very unclean person 

 attacked in the nasal fossae and the 

 pharynx, who succumbed after he had 

 ejected one hundred and twenty larvae. 

 There were, as M. .St. Pair observed, 

 in the same country, six similar cases, 

 of which three terminated in the death 

 of the patients after cruel sufferings : in 

 two the nose was destroyed, and in the 

 last there ^yas a deformation of the ol- 

 factor}' organ. In another case observ- 

 ed liy AI. St. Pair there were removed, 

 by means of injections, more than 

 three hundred larvae, but he was 

 not able to obtain them all, and the re- 

 mainder soon penetrated the ball of the 

 eye, destroying the lower eyelid in 

 consequence of gangrene, invaded the 

 mouth, corroded the gums and laid bare 

 the inferior maxillary ; the victim died 

 seventeen days after his entrance into 

 the hospital." 



