STOMACH BOTS. 199 



In the stomach of the horse. Puppa red brown with 



small prickles round the segments. 



"3. Veterinus. Oe. The Red, or Breast Bot. Wings 

 clear, unspotted. Body oblong, tapering, covered 

 with reddish yellow hairs; sides of the thorax and 

 base of the abdomen with white tufted hairs. 



In meadows. Larva oblong, coral red, smooth joints, 

 rounded, two last dark red. 



In horses' stomachs." 



My father has made some valuable observations on the 

 bots of horses, and in a paper published in the first number 

 of the Edinburgh Veterinary Review, which appeared in 

 July, 1858, he says: "Bracy Clark has graphically described 

 how the female fly deposits her eggs, covered by a glutinous 

 secretion, on those parts of the skin which a horse can reach 

 with his tongue. When the eggs are hatched the skin be- 

 comes irritable, and the horse bites and gnaws himself, the 

 small active animal born adheres to the tongue, and fixes 

 itself on the nearest and most convenient spot it can attain. 

 Accordingly we find the larva or grub attached by its tough 

 hooks to the cardiac end of the stomach, where the mucous 

 membrane is covered by a thick cuticular structure. Some- 

 times we find them close to the pylorus and in the duodenum, 

 and I have noticed them in the rectum. I remember, when 

 a boy, in Essex, seeing the flies attack the farm-horses at 

 plough during the hot summer days; and it is found that 

 the perfect fly is soon destroyed by changes of weather, by 

 cold and moisture. Bracy Clark says he has often seen the 

 fly during the night time, and in cold weather, fold itself up, 

 with the head and tail nearly in contact, and lying appar- 

 ently in a torpid state, though in the middle of summer. It 

 is the high temperature necessary to the fly's existence which 



