MYIASIS 223 



"The 'floor-maggot' (p. 213) itself is devoid of the charac- 

 teristic spines described above in the case of the Tumbu-fly 

 larva, and the posterior surface of its last segment, instead of 

 being vertical, as in the latter, slopes backwards at an angle 

 of 45°, and has around its hind margin a series of fleshy spines ; 

 the stigmatic plates on this segment, too, are extremely small 

 and wide apart (2 mm. apart in the adult larva), while in the 

 Tumbu-fly maggot they are much larger and close together (at 

 the nearest point separated by less than the diameter of a single 

 stigmatic plate)." 



The Maggot Fly. Bengalia depressa. 



Theobald (1906) says, "the Maggot Fly {Bengalia depressa 

 Walker) is a well-known human and animal pest in parts of 

 Africa."..." The Bengalia occurs in numbers in Natal, but 

 according to Fuller (1901) the range of this fly seems to be 

 limited to the coast and no further inland than the 1000 feet 

 elevation. It is common from the Tugela downwards, and is 

 particularly abundant about Verulam and Durban, but not so 

 much to the south of that port. It is also recorded further up 

 the coast from Delagoa Bay." " Dr Balfour has had this insect 

 sent him from the Bahr-el-Ghazal province, and has also given 

 me a larva from the back of a native, which undoubtedly is the 

 maggot of this fly." It is common in Rhodesia and ranges into 

 British Central Africa and Uganda. 



"The fly is half an inch long with wing expanse of about an inch. The head is 

 large, with two prominent dark eyes, brown in colour with yellowish-brown between 

 the eyes. The thorax is rusty to yellowish-brown with dark lateral and dorsal chtetce. 

 The abdomen is pale brown, darker at the apex with two dusky bands, pale below. 

 The legs of a similar tint to the pale colour of the thorax. The transparent wings 

 are tinged, especially at their bases, with dusky brown. The fleshy mouth parts are 

 not adapted to pierce the skin, on the other hand the female has a sharp needle-like 

 ovipositor. 



"The ova, according to Fuller, are elongated and white and about 3-5oths of 

 an inch in length. 



" The larva, which was obtained by Captain Lyle Cummins, is creamy white in 

 colour with deep brown spines. (Fuller describes the maggot as 'of a white or 

 dirty whitish colour and much besprinkled with minute black spots which, as a 

 matter of fact, are really spines.') When mature it reaches half an inch in length. 

 The cephalad area has two blunt processes, each of which bears a small blunt 



