492 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



execute tliem, or, more often, the indifference of tlie courts and their 

 unwillingness to enforce them with vigor. 



The pest has come to stay. No human endeavor can exterminate 

 it. But it may be controlled, and while the greatest possible co-oper- 

 ation should bo urged and, if possible, enforced, yet each orange- 

 grower must in the "end depend uijon his own exertion; and we say to 

 them, individually and collectively, that there is no occasion for 

 discouragement. This insect has made profitable orange-grov/ing 

 on the Pacific coast more difiicult and more of a science; but, by mak- 

 ing it impossible at the same time for the shiftless to succeed in their 

 business, it will come to be looked upon as a not unmixed evil. 



BUFFALO GNATS. 



Order DiPTERA; family Simulid^. 



[Plates VI, VII, VIII, and IX.] 



For many years past one of the greatest insect foes the stock- 

 raisers of the lower Mississippi Valley have had to contend with has 

 been the so-called Southern Bufi'alo Gnat. This insect is a small fly, 

 closely related to the well-known " Black Fly" of the North, to the 

 famous " Columbacz Gnat" of Hungary, and to other less known but 

 as noxious species of the genus Siiuulium, found abundantly in Lap- 

 land, Brazil, and Australia. These flies swarm at certain seasons in 

 immense numbers, and by their bite, multiplied a thousand fold, 

 cause great destruction amongst mules, horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, 

 and poultry. 



Although we possess in the United States a great number of species 

 of the genus Simulium, only a few of them are so very troublesome 

 and noxious as to have attracted special attention. The great ma- 

 jority of the species are quite local, and occur only in such limited 

 numbers as not to form swarms of sufficient strength to occasion any 

 serious damage, although they are very troublesome at tiraes in some 

 regions. The popular name "Southern Bulfalo Gnat" includes at 

 least two distinct species, and others will doubtless be found to con- 

 tribute to the inj ury when the regions are better studied entomologi- 

 cally. In any general account of the distribution of the Southern 

 Buffalo Gnats it must be borne in mind that these two species are fre- 

 quently called by the same name, and that even other flies not at all 

 related to them are called Buffalo Gnats by the inhabitants of the 

 infested regions. 



Although tvv^o or more species of Simulium are thus confounded, the 

 following general statements will describe the actions of all species. 

 They resemble each other in their life-history so closely, that one 

 description of it will apply to that of all. 



The popular name Buffalo Gnat has not been chosen because 

 these gnats ever attack the animal of that name, but because of a 

 fancied resemblance to the shape of the same. Looking at the insect 

 from the side, it reveals a very large, hump-backed thorax, with the 

 head — furnished with two short antennae, like minature horns — in the 

 act of butting an enemy. The name "Turkey Gnat," however, has 

 been given to one of the species concerned, because it appears at a 

 time when turkeys are setting and suffer so much by them. " Goose 

 Gnat " is another name used for the same insect for a similar reason. 



Believing that it is always best in popular nomenclature to adopt 

 names already known and given by the people, we shall throughout 



