5 



hairy wings, which unfortunately arrived in too damaged a condition 

 for description : " Very small blood-sucking flies, most active 

 early in the morning and in the evening, and in dark huts during 

 the day. A shrill buzz is heard when they are on the wing near 

 one's ear. They will pierce the human skin as quickly as a Tsetse, 

 and like that fly they appear to take their fill and then retire to 

 digest it. The particular specimens sent are from Blantyre 

 District, Shire Highlands, but I have seen and caught them in 

 North-Eastern Rhodesia, in Tsetse country ; they are always found 

 in well- treed country, and sometimes in numbers akin to swarms. 

 They are very active and difficult to catch in a bad light, most 

 readily go for one's ankles and face, and are sometimes quite as 

 annoying as Mosquitoes ; the puncture inflicted by them produces 

 a distinct pricking sensation. The abundance of these insects in 

 certain places may render them quite worthy of the attention of 

 students of blood-sucking flies in relation to disease." 



The larvce are very active, eel-like creatures, 



Life-history. with smooth bodies, consisting of thirteen 



segments, including the chitinous head ; the 



prothoracic segment is devoid of prolegs on its under side. The 



tracheal system is entirely closed, and the anal segment bears 



retractile tracheal gills.* No observations have yet been made on 



the Life-history of any African species of Culicoides, but, like those 



of other species of the genus, the larvae of African forms probably 



live in the sap saturating diseased bark on tree-trunks ; some are 



perhaps aquatic. 



The pupa in Culicoides is nearly smooth, but, according to Kieffer, 

 the abdominal segments each bear a transverse ridge armed with 

 minute spines. 



* For a fuller account of the larva of Culicoides, see Kieffer, Wytsman's " Genera 

 Insectorum," 42me Fascicule, "Diptera: Fam. Chironomidse," pp. 53, 54 (Brussels: 

 P. Wytsman, 43, Rue Saint- Alphonse, 1906). 



