145 



dogs were often seen with their ears raw and bleeding from the 

 attacks of this pest." Mr. F. D. McMillan, writing from Lorenzo 

 Marques, kindly supplies the following note on Stomoxys calcitrans : 

 " Native name C'nane Pungane. This is a horrid little fly that is 

 always biting one, and apparently draws more blood than it can 

 carry away, for it leaves a small clot of blood or else makes such 

 a large hole that blood comes. Sometimes the bite is painful and 

 causes swelling, and sometimes no mark, except the clot of bloodj 

 is left. The species is common everywhere, and I have met with 

 it in the Transvaal, Cape Colony, and Natal."* It frequently 

 happens that Stomoxys calcitrans is taken attacking animals in 

 company with S. nigra, Macq., as was done by Dr. W. M. Graham 

 in Ashanti, and by the late Captain A. G. Haslam at Machakos, 

 East Africa Protectorate, in June, 1898. In sending specimens of 

 these two species from Machakos, Captain Haslam wrote to the 

 author on July 3rd, 1898, that he had " caught these flies on every 

 kind of animal, including gazelles, wildebeeste, and all domestic 

 animals, and also on meat exposed for a few seconds." Captain 

 Haslam continued : " Animals do not object to them much after 

 the preliminary stab with the proboscis. They remain sucking 

 for several minutes, and bulge out their abdomens with blood, "f 

 Howard, writing at Washington, U.S.A., states that Stomoxys 

 calcitrans is able to bite " through thin clothing."} Newstead, 

 who allowed himself to be bitten by a newly emerged male fly, 

 describes the process of feeding and his own sensations as follows : 

 " In sucking blood from the writer's hand the insect sat high upon 

 its legs, but the anterior pair were much elbowed, and all the joints 

 of the tarsi generally rested upon the skin of the host. The whole 



* Linnseus's observations, written nearly one hundred and fifty years ago (Fauna 

 Suecica, Ed. II., loc. cit. [1761]), on the behaviour of 8. calcitrans in Sweden are as 

 follows : " Habitat ubique. Hsec tibias nostras ingruente prsesertim pluvia pungit ; 

 haec, ut continue calcitrent boves, nee pedibus quiescant, facit ; ubi pungit, macula 

 saepe rubra in medio coccinea, diu durans " (" Found everywhere. This fly bites our 

 shins, especially during rain ; it makes cattle kick continuously, so that their feet 

 are never still ; the place bitten is often marked by a red spot with a scarlet centre, 

 which lasts for a long time "). 



f Cf. Austen, " Monograph of the Tsetse-Flies," loc. cit." 



i. Cf. L. O. Howard, Proceedings of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. II., 

 p. 578 (1900). 



