418 



DIPTERA. 



In the wingless Sheep-tick, Melophagus ovinus Linn, which 

 is often very troublesome (Fig. 341, and puparium), the head 

 is wider than the thorax, the proboscis is as long as the head 

 itself, the limbs are short and thick, and the bristly abdomen 

 is broad and not divided into joints. 



The genus Carnus, which was placed in the Conopidce by 

 Nitzsch, seems rather to belong here. C. hemapterus Nitzsch, 

 is "of the size of a flea, with minute rudi- 

 ments of wings, and is parasitic on birds 

 of the genus Sturnus." 



NYCTERIBID^: Leach. The Bat-ticks are 

 remarkably spider-like, with a beaker-like 

 head, without eyes, having four ocelli, 

 or else entirely blind. The finger-like, 

 two-jointed antennae are situated on the 

 under side of the head. The proboscis is 

 feather-like, the palpi very large and por- 

 rect ; the legs are of great size, with the 

 basal joint of the tarsi of remarkable length, and the hairy 

 abdomen is composed of six segments. They are very small 

 parasites, one or two lines in length. Westwood has extracted 

 the puparium from the body, showing the close relationship 

 of these strange forms to Hippobosca. Nycteribia Westwoodii 

 Guerin (Fig. 342) is an East Indian species. 



BRAULINA Gerstaecker. The Bee-lice are wingless, minute, 

 blind insects, with large heads ; the thorax is transverse, ring- 

 shaped, half as long as 

 a the head ; the abdomen 



is round, five-jointed, 

 and the legs are thick, 

 with long claws ena- 

 bling them to cling to 

 the hairs of bees. 



The genus Braula 

 may be compared with 

 3*3. the flea, its body being 



flattened vertically, while that of the flea is flattened lat- 



