206 THROUGH ANGOLA 



from tsetse Hies and should be safe from the 

 diseases they carry. 



There are two varieties of fly which painfully 

 interest the dwellers of the lowlands of Angola; 

 one of these I met near the Coanza River, the other 

 I believe I saw in its upper reaches. 



The Auchmeromyia lutcola, or Congo floor 

 maggot fly, a stout, buff -coloured vegetarian insect 

 with a blackish abdomen, is less harmful than its 

 dreadful name suggests ; but it cannot be acquitted 

 of guilt, because it produces, from eggs laid under 

 native huts, a larva about half an inch long, which 

 is a ruthless cannibal. This maggot emerges at 

 night from crevices in the hut floor to suck the 

 blood of any one lying upon it. The robber is 

 sometimes caught by daylight, red-bodied from 

 stolen blood, before he can get back to his lair 

 below. 



The Tumbu fly (Cordylobia anthropophaga) 

 resembles the Auchmeromyia in appearance, and 

 in being the parent of an equally offensive larva, 

 the Tumbu maggot, which finds its way beneath 

 the skin of the human body, where it produces 

 a nasty boil, cured only by extracting the 

 maggot. 



I found ticks of many varieties in Angola, and 

 know of others occurring there, which were not met 

 in my journeys. Most of the wild animals arc 

 infected with ticks, and often with more than one 

 variety. Some of them convey disease to domestic 

 animals ; the red water fever of cattle being caused 

 by Rhiphicephalus appcndiculatus, and biliary fever 

 of dogs by H (Emaphyllis Icachi. 



