NOTES ON A SPECIES OF SANDFI.Y. 



By W. R. COLLEDGE. 



[Read before the Roijal Society of Queensland, November 16, 1901.] 



The sandfly is a popular term, which includes members of 

 different species of Diptera, 



The subject of the present paper is found in Brisbane, and 

 seems to be related to a species named " Ceratopogon Albo- 

 punctus." These insects are exceedingly troublesome both to 

 man and animals. Being so minute, the ordinary mosquito 

 netting is no barrier to its progress. A hole of a fiftieth of an 

 inch in diameter is only a narrow way leading to her heaven if 

 she is hungry and you are inside. Unlike her compeer, the 

 mosquito, she gives no warning of her approach, but does hep 

 spiriting gently, and knows intuitively where the most tender 

 parts of your anatomy lie. 



Like all insects, it is naturally divided into three parts, viz., 

 the head, chest, and abdomen. The head resembles a partially 

 compressed globe, the compound eyes occupying nearly the 

 whole of the sides and frontal space, leaving a central aperture, 

 through which the mouth organs project. The cells of the eye 

 do not assume the honeycomb shape of the common house fly, 

 but each is separated from its neighbour by a firm chitinous 

 frame, so that, though there are hundreds of these cells massed 

 together, yet each preserves its circular form, 



A pair of beautiful antennae spring from the sides of the 

 frontal space. These consist of fourteen joints, varying in 

 shape according to their position. The basal one is much 

 enlarged, globular and slightly elongated ; to this are articulated 



