Yol. Ill, Jfo. 4.] INSECT LIFE. [Issued Jfo v., 1890. 



SPECIAL NOTES. 



The Texas Screw Worm.* — Prof. H. A. Morgan has put together some 

 original matter on the subject of this plague to Southern cattle {Lucilia 

 macellaria) in a recent bulletin of the Louisiana Station. It seems that 

 some animals were purchased for the purpose of investigation, and 

 direct observations upon the insect were made. Popular descriptions 

 are given of the egg, larva, pupa, and imago, and observations are re- 

 corded which prove that the insect will breed upon decaying animal 

 matter. The statement is made that they will breed in decaying vege- 

 table matter also, but the observations proving this statement ate not 

 recorded. The fly is said to be readily attracted by the odor of both 

 decaying animal and vegetable matter, and the author has seen plants 

 in the neighborhood of a dead animal completely covered with the flies. 

 The fly is said to be more or less active at night, and the author urges 

 the necessity of mosquito bars in localities where the Screw-worm Fly 

 is prevalent, as it is well known to attack human beings. 



All the natural openings of animals are said to be most liable to at- 

 tack, particularly the " sheaths " of horses and mules and the navels 

 of newly-born stock, while in all animals where an abrasion of the skin 

 is made the fly may be expected to lay her eggs. The death of stock 

 which has been attacked at the point where the horn has been acci- 

 dentally broken off is recorded, but the majority of deaths resulted from 

 the deposition of eggs upon spots where ticks had been killed, the fly 

 being attracted by the blood. The author had noticed, however, that 

 when sheep had become sick and emaciated, the characteristic sickly 

 odor has attracted the flies, which laid masses of eggs in the folds of the 

 wool, the young larvas penetrating the skin where no wound has been 

 made. 



In the matter of preventives, the author insists upon the importance 

 of burying or otherwise destroying all animal and vegetable matter, a 



•Bulletin of the Agricultural Experiment — Station of Louisiana, No. 2, Second 

 Series. Texas Screw Worm, by Prof. H. A. Morgan, Entomologist, Baton Eouge, 1890. 



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