THE BITING HOUSE FLY 243 



inally an European species and has spread by the help 

 of commerce to many parts of the world. It occurs 

 all over North America and is also to be found in Cen- 

 tral and South America. It is also found in Australia, 

 China, India, and the Canary Islands. 



The writer has reared the biting house fly from cow 

 manure and from horse manure. I judge from the 

 fact that it is attracted to human excreta that it may 

 become a carrier of intestinal disease. It has been 

 reared from sheep's dung and from warm decaying 

 vegetable refuse, especially from piles of fermenting 

 lawn grass. 



Lucien Iches, in the Bulletin de la Societe Nationale 

 d'Acclimatation de France, March, 1909, published a 

 very interesting article on Stomoxys calcitrans and Ar- 

 gentine cattle, giving the results of a brief investigation 

 made by him in 1908 in the province of Santa Fe, Ar- 

 gentina. The biting flies swarmed on a large estate in 

 almost incredible numbers. The cattle were driven 

 nearly crazy by them. Certain valuable Durham bulls 

 which were observed were covered with the flies. They 

 had lost their hair in large spots and the skin was 

 cracking. 



Monsieur Iches naturally sought at once for the prin- 

 cipal breeding places of the flies, and found them to be 

 in the stacks of debris from the threshing of wheat and 

 flax. Larvae and puparia were found by the millions 

 in the lower portions of these piles of straw, where 

 some fermentation had already begun. The sensible 

 measure which he recommended was to have this de- 



