25 



and makes its way to some support on which it rests until its tissues 

 are sufficiently hardened to enable it to fly. 



Although as yet no species of Simulium is 



Simulium and known to be capable of acting as a carrier of any 



Disease. pathogenic micro-organism,* in certain localities, 



such as parts of the United States of America, 

 the attacks of these flies have frequently occasioned great losses 

 among domestic animals. In attacking horses and cattle the 

 insects show a great fondness for the inside of the ears, but they also 

 devote themselves to any part of the body where the skin is thin 

 and not well protected by hair ; in the case of human beings they 

 frequently attack the corners of the eyes. In South Africa, 

 according to Mr. C. P. Lounsbury, Government Entomologist, 

 Cape Colony, flies of this genus " do not appear to be known as 

 a stock pest, but one or more species affect poultry to a slight 

 extent."f 



Simulium latipes, Meigen. 



Klassification und Beschreibung der europaischen zweifliiglichen 

 Insecten (Diptera), I., p. 96 (Braunschweig : Reichard, 1804) 

 (Atractocera]. 



PLATE I., FIG. 5. 



Three specimens (two males and one female) of this species have 

 been received from Estcourt, Natal, where they were taken in 

 September or October, 1896, by Mr. G. A. K. Marshall. The 

 female agrees closely with British examples of S. latipes, but in the 

 males the legs are considerably paler, the femora, except the tips of 



* Roubaud states (Bulletin du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,T. XII., p. 522 (Paris: 

 1906) ) that Dr. Buisson, military surgeon of French colonial troops, suggests that it is 

 highly possible that Simulium buissoni, Roubaud, which is abundant at Nuka-hiva, 

 Marquesas Is., and of which Dr. Buisson collected specimens among lepers, helps to 

 propagate leprosy in the French colony in question. No evidence, however, is given 

 in support of this hypothesis. 



f Cf. " Science in South Africa," p. 372 (Cape Town, Pretoria and Bulawayo : 

 T. Maskew Miller, 1905). 



