375 



When, in July, 1894, 1 stopped for a few days at Crescent City, Fla., and 

 visited, iu the company of Mr. H. G. Hubbard, other parts of this State, 

 I was more than ever impressed with the importance of these little tor- 

 mentors, so that 1 fail to understand why in all our literature there is 

 not even the slightest allusion to them. Since no one else seems to be 

 willing to make a beginning, I have ventured to record the following 

 fragmentary notes* for the sole purpose of drawing attention to this 

 subject. jS^othing is known at present of the life history or early 

 stages of these Hies. 



Since these flies can not "bite" it may properly be asked wherein 

 the nature of the annoyance consists and what renders them such an 

 unbearable and dangerous nuisance. First, they "sing" almost as 

 perceptibly as a mosquito, and since everyone is quite sensible to this 

 well-known sound it is, to say the least, not very pleasant to have these 

 flies constantly around you. Secondly, they settle in crowds all over 

 your person to suck up the perspiration, and the annoyance caused by 

 their crawling over the face, neck, and hands is much greater than one 

 would expect from such small insects. But this kind of annoyance 

 could readily be endured with a little patience and practice by all ])er- 

 sons who are not of a nervous temperament if the flies had not the 

 pernicious habit and passion to settle in the corners of the eyes, being- 

 attracted by the moisture of this place. This causes the greatest and 

 almost unbearable annoyance and irritation which is of course still 

 further increased by constant eflbrts to wipe the flies away. 



The above relates solely to the annoyance caused by the Hippelates 

 flies, but there are other facts which stamp them as one of our most 

 dangerous pests: Sore spots, scratches, nlcers, and other open wounds 

 have the greatest attraction for them; they not only thickly crowd on 

 such places which may be about your head and hands, but they crawl 

 beneath your clothing if a sore or other wound should happen to be on 

 your leg or breast. 



If only your own person were concerned the matter would pre- 

 sent no particularly dangerous aspect, but look at the dog lying on the 

 ground only a few steps from you. From flea bites or other causes he 

 has suppurating sores on the back or belly, which, of course, are thickly 

 covered with the flies, tenable to stand longer the irritation the dog 

 suddenly rises and shakes off the flies. Tou can plainly see that many of 

 them come toward you and settle on jour person, some of them sure 

 to get in the corners of your eyes. Or, another person approaches 

 you on the road: the man is plainly suflt'ering from "sore eyes," a com- 

 mon disease among poor people in the South, or you happen to know 

 that the person is afflicted with some other disease. He is, of course, 



* These notes -svere read before the meeting of the Eutomological Society of Wash- 

 ington held October 11, 1894. Several members of the society participated in the 

 discussion and some valuable additional information was thus obtained, which ia 

 included in this article. 



