90 DESCKIPTION OF GLOSSINA LONGIPALPIS. 



Habits, etc. 



See Chapter I. 



The fact that, as recorded above, three specimens were 

 actually caught " in Witu Town " * is of special interest, since 

 it is commonly supposed that the Tsetse avoids the neighbourhood 

 of human habitations. Thus, Livingstone [2l] writes of the 

 " well-known disgust which the Tsetse shows to animal excreta, 

 as exhibited when a village is placed in its habitat ; " and Sir 

 H. H. Johnston [145] says : " This insect has a . . . still 

 stronger dislike to a congeries of human habitations. . . . They 

 [horses and cattle] are also quite safe in the middle of any collec- 

 tion of huts or in any town." 



Synonymy and Affinities. 



As has already been mentioned, Gl. pallidipes has not 

 hitherto been distingtushed from Gl. morsitans, Westw., which 

 forms with it and GL longipalpis, Wied., a closely allied group. 

 Its distinctive characters will be discussed further in dealing 

 with the latter species (see p. 93), to which it presents an 

 exceedingly close resemblance. 



Glossina longipalpis, Wied. 



(Plate V.) 



Glossina longipalpis, Wiedemann, " Aussereuropaische zweifliigelige 

 Insekten," Zweiter Theil, p. 254, Taf. IX. fig. 10, a, b, c (1830) ; Mac- 

 quart, Hist. Nat. des Ins. Dipteres., T. ii., p. 245 (1835); Dipt. Exofe., 

 T. ii., 3, p. 113, Tab. 14, fig. I (1843). 



^ , $ . — Length, 9 to 10 millim. (4| to 4| lin.) ; length of 

 wing, 8 to 9^ millim. (3f to 4i lin.) ; width of head, in both 



* The following is an extract from the ' ' Report of the Officer in Charge 

 of the British East Africa Company's Station at Lamu " to the late British 

 East Africa Ck)mpany, sending the specimens, and dated May 26, 1891 : — " I 

 beg to forward specimens of two species of flies. The three smaller ones, 

 which I believe to be the true "Tsetze," or a species of it, I caught in Witu 

 Town, and caught others between Funga Sormbe and Witu. This fly is 

 also plentiful along the road between Mombasa — Gulu-Gulu — Teita and 

 Kibwezi in Ukambani. Its bite, though very shai-p and needle-like, causes 

 little or no irritation." The other flies sent were specimens of Tahanus 

 latipes, Macq., one of the commonest of the African Tabanidae (horse-flies), 

 which ranges from Senegal to British East Africa and southwards tb 

 Natal. 



