Ausiust — October 1S90.] 



psrcHE. 



403 



than three feet distant and only a few inches 



above the ground. The flies appeared to 



belong to a single species as several were 



caught for identification, and prove to be a 



species of Ilvthea, one of the ephydridae, and 



probablj the European species /. spiloia, 



as that is the only one recorded from this 



country. I shall be glad to know if such 



streams have before been observed among 



ephxdridae. 



Samuel H. Scudder. 



The SupiosED Bot-Fly Parasite of the 

 Box-Turtle. — During the autumn of 1SS9 

 Mr. W. H. Ellsworth donated to the Mil- 

 waukee Public Museum a pair of box-turtles 

 {Cisfiido Carolina), which were taken near 

 Windsor, Ct. They were kept alive during 

 the winter in a terrarium, but the female 

 died 5 April 1890. My friend, the talented 

 taxidermist, Mr. C. E. Akeley, while skele- 

 tonizing this specimen called my attention 

 to a peculiar swelling in the animal's neck. 

 Closer examination showed that the cutis 

 close to the carapace and a little to the right 

 of the median dorsal line, had been converted 

 into a pocket about 4 of an inch in diameter. 

 This pocket opened on the surface by means 

 of a very small aperture and contained besides 

 a quantity of suppurative matter, eight mag- 

 gots which I at first took to be bot-fly larvae. 

 Both their shapes and positions with refer- 

 ence to tlie inner surface of the cavity which 

 they had excavated reminded me of the 

 Gasfrophihis larvae so often exhibited in 

 the shops of veterinary surgeons. Such o* 

 the larvae as had not been injured during the 

 removal of the skin and flesh from the cer- 

 vical vertebrae of the turtle, buried them- 

 selves in the earth 14-15 April and pupated. 

 The imagines made their a]>pearance 27 May 

 and proved to be not bot-flies at all, but a 

 species of Sarcopfiaga. 



Prof. S. VV. Williston has directed my 

 attention to the following note by Packard 

 (American naturalist, 1882, v. 16, p.59S) : 



"The museum of Brown Universitv has 

 received specimens of a bot-fl\' maggot, of 



which eight or ten were taken, according to 

 Prof. J. W. P. Jenks, from under the skin of 

 the back of the neck, close to the shell of the 

 box-turtle {Cistitdo Carolina). The turtle 

 was collected at Middleboro, Mass." * * * * 



"It appears to be a genuine bot-fly. but 

 quite unlike any genus figured by Brauer in 

 his work on the ocstridac. 



The body is long and slender, cylindrical, 

 tapering so that each end is much alike. 

 The segments are provided with numerous 

 fine spines, which are not entirely confined 

 to the posterior half or two thirds of the seg- 

 ment. The body is slender and the spines 

 much smaller than in Gastrophilus egtii." 



A comparison of this account with my 

 observation given above leaves no doubt 

 that the larvae seen by Packard and myself 

 are specifically identical. I have also com- 

 pared one of the maggots with Packard's 

 figure and description and can detect no 

 difterences. The error into which he has 

 fallen is pardonable, inasmuch as the S(rr- 

 cophaga larvae are microscopically so simi- 

 lar to bot-fly maggots that any entomologist 

 imaccustomed to the minute study of dipte- 

 rous larvae would not hesitate to allocate 

 them to the ocstridac. Until the flies ap- 

 peared, I was quite sure that I had found a 

 bot-fly infesting a reptile. (See Proc. acad. 

 nat. sci. Phil., 18S7, p. 393-394; 1S8S, p. 128; 

 Science, 5 December 1884, v. 4, p. 511) 



It would seem to be a regular habit with 

 this fly to infest Cisfiido Carolina. That the 

 eggs or 3'oung larvae are laid on the living 

 turtle there can be no doubt, but whether 

 they are deposited in a sore, or on the una- 

 braded skin of the nucha, as being a region 

 inaccessible to the turtle's beak and claws, 

 remains to be seen. 



The four imagines which I succeeded in 

 rearing proved to be females and though the 

 species appears not to have been described 

 as yet, I would rather wait till male speci- 

 mens can be secured, before attempting to 

 add another member to the large and very 

 difficult genus Sarcopkaga. 



W. M. Wheeler. 



