380 Mr. E. E. Austen on Specimens of the Genus 



Mr. Hart writes as follows : — 



" Royal Botanic Gardens, 



Trinidad, 



Dec. 11, 1894. 



" I take the liberty to forward you a circular issued by my 

 office on the so-called ' Mosquito Worm.' This insect has 

 been commonly attributed to Tijnda as its originator in 

 Trinidad, which of course, without experiment or argument, 

 could be shown to be erroneous. Still the actual rearing of 

 the imago was needed to show on the spot that it was so. 

 This has now been done, as described by circular." . . . 



The following is the circular referred to : — 



" Botanical Department, Trinidad. 

 Circular-note No. 14. 



" On Saturday, the 13th of October, I had brought to me a 

 specimen of the Spiny Rat {Loncheres guiance), which had 

 been found feeding on a fruit-tree in the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens. 



" On examination the animal was found to be affected with 

 the parasite known in Trinidad as the ' Mosquito Worm,' 

 whose life-history up to the pre.sent has been but imperfectly 

 known. 



" The Rat was placed in a finely netted cage, and on 

 Oct. 22nd, or nine days after it was captured, the animal rid 

 itself of the parasite, and the latter assumed the chrysalis 

 stage in one of the cage corners. 



" The chrysalis was a hard body, almost black, with nine 

 [eleven] segments, and in form slightly tapered to opposite 

 ends. It was over one inch and a quarter in length, and 

 measured five eighths of an inch in diameter at its broadest 

 part. 



" The chrysalis was kept in damp earth, and on Dec. 3rd 

 (42 days) the perfect insect emerged 



" The puncture in the skin of the Rat on which the fly was 

 developed healed in two or three days. 



" The term ' Mosquito Worm ' is therefore proved to be 

 erroneously applied. 



(Signed) " J. H. Hart, F.L.S." 

 "Dec. 3rd, 1894." 



Cutiterehra approximataj Walk, 

 Cuterebra ajjproxhiiata, Walker, ' The Naturalist in Vancouver Island 



and British Columbia,' by J. K. Lord, vol. ii. pp. 338-339 (1866). 

 This, with C. terrisona, Walk., C. funebris, Austen, and 



