140 



LETTERS TO MR. GIBB [CHAP, xv 



June 20, 1896. 



I was very glad to have your note of first capture of Hippo- 

 bosca (Forest fly) on May 6th. I wonder whether on your 

 Red Deer (or Roe Deer, if you have them) you find the Deer 

 Forest fly, the Lipoptena cervi. I am having a deal of com- 

 munication about it as having been observed as a very 

 noticeable infestation on Deer in one locality in the North 

 of Scotland. I believe it is troublesome to people moving 

 in the parts it frequents, but the odd thing about it is, that 

 whilst the females are considered (or conjectured, for it is 

 not quite certain) to be always wingless, yet the male flies 

 are developed with wings and drop them, something like 

 ants, on settling on a host animal. It would be very inter- 



E.CJZ 



i, Leg and base of wing ; 2, base of wing ; 3, abortive wing ; 

 5, female fly, with base of wings all much magnified ; 4, pupa- 

 rium, much magnified, and line showing natural length. 



FIG. 23. DEER FOREST FLY (FEMALE), LIPOPTERA CERVI, VON 

 SIEBOLD AND LOEW. 



esting if you found any of these ; they come very near the 

 so-called " Sheep tick" in their nature, only neither male nor 

 female of the " Sheep Forest flies " is ever winged. It is 

 also very curious that from some unaccountable confusion 

 the generic name has gone wrong ; it seems obvious it 

 should be Lipoptera, "without wings," but it is supposed 

 by some error in printing Lipoptena, which has no 

 meaning connected with the fly, has got substituted. I 

 think it would be well presently to try to get this put right. 



