258 Timehri. 
one to crawl from my hat to my hand, and pierce one of my fingers with its 
proboscis, just to find out what the operation would be like. The pang of the 
prick was by no means as severe as anticipated from the zest with which the 
blood-robber drove in her lance. All thesame I slapped her to death as she 
did so. 
Another great blood-drinker is Tepiselaya crassipes, not found on the coast 
as far as [ am aware, but common in the hinterland. It is black, covered with 
a sort of iridescent down. The legs are inflated, and have white tips. While 
journeying on the Berbice River in 1908 one of these flies flew on board the 
steamer when about 50 miles up, and a few weeks ago I observed one on board 
the Demerara ferry boat. In the latter instance the fly had doubtless been 
brought down from the upper reaches of the river by the Wismar steamer. 
In the interior the sand wasp Monedula siynata is said to feed its young on this 
fly, and to attend on persons to pluck the flies from their bodies, just as it deals 
with the Motuca fly of Brazil. 
The colony possesses many other Tabanids besides those mentioned above, 
but they are not yet identified. 
The family of the Muscide includes a few blood-sucking flies, but only one 
of these as far as I know inhabits this colony. It is an insect about the size of 
our common house-fly (Musca domestica) and having much the same appearance, 
save that it is more distinctly marked with grey and black, and has a little rigid 
black proboscis, which, when not in use, projects horizontally in front of the 
head, whereas the fleshy non-biting proboscis of the house-fly is carried drawn up 
in a cavity on the underside of the head. Indeed, at a casual glance, it so 
greatly resembles the ordinary house-fly that it has often been mistaken for the 
latter, with the result that the house-fly has sometimes been thought capable 
of pricking. Like the cow-flies it also attacks man, but not by any means to the 
extent to which it does mules, horses, and cattle. On these animals, particularly 
the mules on sugar estates, it may sometimes be seen in dozens at once. 
As it is very persistent in its attack, worrying the poor creatures from morning 
till night, whether they be in stable, pasture or harness, and as each fly can 
probably contain in its stomach as much blood as several mosquitoes put 
together, it will easily be recognised what a great loss of blood attacked animals 
must sustain. I cannot but conclude that this fly is none other than Stomoxys 
calcitrans, mentioned in works on natural history as being abundant in Europe 
and North America. It is not unlikely that Stomoxys calcitrans, like the house- 
fly and many other pests of man or domestic animals, is cosmopolitan. Its 
distribution certainly is very wide. Austen records it as occurring in Europe, 
North America, West Africa, Ceylon, Java, Hong Kong, and New South Wales. 
I experienced its stabbing powers one morning shortly after sunrise 
while collecting mosquito larvee from a canal running through Kitty village. 
On the water-grass before me there flitted a grey-striped fly which I supposed 
to be one of our ordinary innocuous Muscids. Its activity, however, was a bit 
of a puzzle to me, as well behaved Muscids are never thus early on the 
wing. I paid no further attention toit but continued gathering my larve. 
