DIPTEEA. 73 



with a few transverse yellow stripes across the abdomen, and 

 with wings longer than its body. It is not dangerous to man, 

 to any wild animals, or to the pig, the mule, the ass, or the goat. 



Fig. 53. The Tsetse fly ( Glossina morsitans. ) 



But it stings mortally the ox, the horse, the sheep, and the dog, 

 and renders the countries of Central Africa uninhabitable for 

 those valuable animals. It seems to possess very sharp sight : " It 

 darts from the top of a bush as quick as an arrow on the object it 

 wishes to attack," writes a traveller, M. de Costelnau. 



M. Chapmann, one of the travellers who have advanced the 

 farthest into the middle of Southern Africa, relates that he covered 

 his body with the greatest care to avoid the bites of this nimble 

 enemy. But if a thorn happened to make a nearly imperceptible 

 hole in his clothing, he often saw the Tsetse, who appeared to 

 know that it could not penetrate the cloth, dart forward and sting 

 him on the uncovered part. This sucker of blood secretes in a 

 gland, placed at the base of its trunk, so subtle a poison that three 

 or four flies are sufficient to kill an ox. 



The Glossina morsitans abounds on the banks of the African 

 river, the Zambesi, frequenting the bushes and reeds that border 

 it. It likes, indeed, all aquatic situations. The African cattle 

 recognise at great distances the buzzing of this sanguinary enemy, 

 and this fatal sound causes them to feel the greatest fear. 



