ORIGINAL FIGURE OF GL. MORSITAXS. 83 



Wings faintly brownish. Squamae white, fringe of antisquama 

 darker, as usual. Hal teres pale yellow. 



With reference to West wood's original figure of Gl. morsitans 

 (P. Z. S. 1850, PI. xix. Fig. 2), it is perhaps worthy of note that 

 the head of the typical specimen, which is there repi-esented, has 

 at some time or other become detached from the body, and has 

 subsequently been glued on in an unnatural position, the vertex 

 being attached to the front of the thorax in such a way that the 

 long axis of the head is almost horizontal. Curiously enough this 

 defect was faithfully reproduced by West wood in his drawing, 

 which thus gives an altogether distorted idea of the appearance 

 of the head of the insect when seen from above.* West wood's 

 type is in vei-y poor condition, especially as regards the thorax, 

 which is denuded and almost entirely destitute of the greyish 

 dust with which it is normally clothed, so that the ground colour 

 appears ochraceous-buff, with four rather broad black stripes, 

 interrupted at the suture, the lateral stripes abbreviated in fi-ont, 

 the middle pair behind. These stripes, which are shown in 

 Westwood's figure, are not nearly so distinct in well-preserved 

 specimens, since they are normally to a large extent concealed by 

 the gi-eyish dust with which the ground colour of the thorax is 

 ob.scured. 



Distribution op GJ. morsitans, Westw. 



The above description has been drawn up from an examination 

 of .seventy -one specimens (50 (J (J , 21 $ 9 ), as follows : — 



1 (J , the type of the species, locality uncertain f (Major Frank 



* Westwood's figure was reproduced on the title-page of Livingstone's 

 "Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa," and also on p. 571 

 of that work, where it is accompanied by a copy of Westwood's figure of 

 the head and mouth parts, and by a rough original wood-cut representing 

 the fly nearly natural size. In the Appendix to Oates' " Matabele Land and 

 the Victoria Falls," p. 364, Westwood mentions that his figure was copied 

 upon the title-page of Livingstone's work "without acknowledgment," but 

 from Livingstone's own statement (op. cit. p. 571) it is clear that he sinned 

 in ignorance, since the drawing was supplied to him by Mr. J. E. Gray, 

 of the British Museum. 



t The specimen bears the following label, in Westwood's handwriting : — 

 " Glossina morsitans, Westwood (Setse), fm. Lake Tchad, Central Africa. 

 Captn. Prank Vardon " ; but this locality must be wrong. So far as I can 

 discover. Major Vardon never visited Lake Tchad, and the specimen is 

 almost certainly from the Siloquana Hills, which are in the north of the 

 Transvaal, in the angle formed by the Nylstroom River with the Limpopo. 

 The late Wm. Cotton Oswell, who was a companion of Vardon on lais 

 shooting expeditions (cf. " Big Game Shooting," Vol. I., pp. 88, 89), writing 

 in "Big Game Shooting," Vol. L, p. 113 (The Badminton Library, 

 London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1894), says: — "On the low Siloquana 

 IJiUa near thia we made our acquaintance with the Ts6ts6 fly, which wa 



o 3 



