METirOD OF INFESTATION. 55 



immediately that the name of Pujvpara, or " pnpa-bearing," has been 

 bestowed on this division of the Diptera. This fully-developed larva 

 (or puparium), which is very often mistaken for the egg of the fly, is 

 white when deposited,* and, in the case of H. equina, so rapidly 

 changes in appearance, that in twenty-four hours or less it has become 

 brown or black, and hard outside, and from this chrysalis, or pupa- 

 case, the fly emerges by cracking off one end of its case (customarily) 

 in about four weeks, though it is considered that hybernation sometimes 

 takes place in pupal state. 



In record to some main points in the habits of the flij. From obser- 

 vations taken in the New Forest it appears that these may be found 

 fairly plentiful early in May, when warm sunshine has brought them 

 out from their winter quarters in sheltered places or under bark of 

 old trees. On wild ponies or cattle in the Forest these flies may be 

 in clusters of even hundreds without the animals appearing to mind 

 their presence so long as the flies remain at rest. 



The great trouble is in the case of horses unused to the fly attack, 

 which on first infestation by a Forest Fly "have a frightened look, lay 

 the ears back, make short stamps and kicks with the feet ; and, if the 

 fly is not taken off, will sometimes kick violently, and even roll." 

 The difficulties from horses unaccustomed to the fly becoming un- 

 manageable on their first acquaintance with it are well known. This 

 fear does not appear to arise from any pain connected with the bite, 

 though the flies are to some degree blood-suckers, as is shown by flies 

 being sometimes found distended with the blood they have taken, and 

 much of the distress and terror is ascribed to the irritation caused by 

 the fly running (generally sideways) amongst the hair, and also by 

 means of its groove-sided claws having such hold of the hairs that the 

 horse is totally unable to dislodge it. With this fly, as well as with 

 one of the Indian kinds, the Dog Forest Fly, Hippubosca canina, the 

 tenacity of the grip of the claws on hair is so great that it can 

 peel the outer part of the hair to mere shavings, and the dragging 

 that must take place at the roots of the hairs in the passage of the 

 pest amongst them may well account for the distress on its first 

 experience. 



Nothing (so far as I am aware) has been mentioned as to the eflect 

 of its peculiar cry as it settles down, but from my personal experience 

 when attacked by a stray specimen in my study, when I was unpre- 

 pared for its sudden flight at my hair, I should say that the noise was 

 thoroughly startling. 



One of the most commonly adopted remedies for attack to un- 

 seasoned horses in the New Forest is to damp a cloth with paraffin, 



* For figure, natural size and magnified, before complete colouration, and for 

 figure of pupa removed from puparium, see p. 50. 



