94 



BLOOD-SUCKING ARTHROPODA. 



ill cortaiii parts of the United States, occasion great losses among 

 these animals, besides frequently molesting human beings. In the 

 district of South Hungary called the Banat the Columbacz Midge 

 {Simulium columhaczense, Schonb.) has been notorious for more than 

 a hundred years, owing to the destruction caused by it among cattle. 



Psychodidse, genus Phlehotomus (in the Sudan and Ceylon called 

 Sand-Jiies). 



In this family the blood-sucking habit is altogether exceptional, 

 being confined to the genus Phlehotomus,* of which only three or 

 four species, which occur in Southern Europe, the Mediterranean 

 Snb-Kegion, the Egyptian Sudan, and Ceylon, are at present known. 

 It is probable that the females alone suck blood. 



Appearance. — Small yellowish-brown flies from 1| to 2 mm. in 



length, with the body 

 and wings densely 

 clothed with long hair. 

 Antenna?, palpi, and 

 legs long ; proboscis 

 straight, projecting 

 vertically beneath the 

 head. Abdomen of the 

 female roseate when full 

 of blood. Care must 

 be taken not to con- 

 fuse with PJdehotomus 

 the harmless species 

 belonging to other 

 genera of Psyclio- 

 didse, all of which 

 are small, densely 

 hairy, moth-like flies, 

 but with the proboscis scarcely, if at all, visible. 



* Since this was written the Eev. A. E. Eaton has stated that in England 

 ho lias observed bleed in the abdomen of Sycorax silacca, Hal., and has made 

 a similar observation in Algeria in the case of an iindescribed species of the 

 same genus. Of course the blood may not have been human. 



«: x~z~- - .- 



Fic. 3.— Pldehotomnn sp. ^ . Kassal.a, Sudan. 

 (X 12.) 



I 



