171 



found by the Rev. A. E. Eaton at Biskra, Algeria, on March 3rd, 

 1894, " by digging " at the roots of Euphorbia guyoniana ; from one 

 of these puparia the perfect insect emerged on May 6th, 1894. 

 Since the larvae of Hippoboscidae on being extruded are incapable of 

 movement, the fact that these puparia were obtained " by digging " 

 would seem to indicate something more than that the larvae had 

 merely fallen from a host which had happened to be standing or 

 lying on the spot, and would apparently suggest that they had been 

 deposited where the puparia were found, by females which had 

 intentionally crawled into cracks in the soil in order to consign their 

 offspring to a safe resting place. 



As will be seen below, Hippobosca ruftpes, von 

 Hippobosca Olfers, and H. maculata, Leach, have been 

 and Disease, experimentally shown to be capable of trans- 

 mitting Trypanosoma theileri, Laveran, which is 

 the cause of gall- or bile-sickness among cattle in the Transvaal, 

 while the former species has been thought to be responsible for the 

 dissemination of a local form of anthrax among horses in parts of 

 Griqualand West. It is not likely that under ordinary circumstances 

 these flies are directly inimical to man, since although H. maculata 

 is said sometimes to bite human beings, such an occurrence is 

 undoubtedly exceptional . 



Hippobosca struthionis, Janson. 



In the late Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod's " Notes and Descriptions 

 of a Few Injurious Farm and Fruit Insects of South Africa," 

 p. 56, fig. 23 (London : Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1889). 



PLATE XIII., FIG. 98. 



This is a species of peculiar interest, since, instead of being a 

 mammal parasite like the other members of the genus Hippobosca, 

 it infests the ostrich (Struthio australis, Gurney).* The localities, 



* It is true that the typical specimen of Hippobosca rufipes, v. Olfers, is said to 

 have been taken on an ostrich; but, as will be seen below (p. 177), this was 

 probably accidental. 



