872 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV 11. 



found in epidemic form only where the Glossina palpalis was present, 

 and that patients removed to an area free from this Tsetse-fly did not 

 prove the starting point of an epidemic. In other words, where 

 no Tsetse-flies were present, there no cases of Sleeping Sickness 

 were found. 



Now this has a very special interest for the Bombay Presidency, for 

 the trade between the West Coast ports and East Africa is growing 

 rapidly, and it is certain that sooner or later cases of Sleeping Sickness 

 will be imported. Is it likely that such cases will prove the starting- 

 points of an epidemic in India? The answer will depend on the pre 

 sence or absence of flies in India capable of transmitting the disease from 

 one person to another. Are there any Tsetse-flies in India? No one 

 knows, and it is most important to find out. 



With this object I wrote in January last year to the Superintendent, 

 Indian Museum, Calcutta, Nat. Hist. Section, to enquire whether Tsetse- 

 flies or their allies existed in India. He replied, " I can only say that 

 Stomoxys and Glossina are not at present known to occur in India. 

 Very little however is known about Indian Diptera outside the recent 

 work on Culicidce, they have been little collected, and they are only now 

 beginning to attract the attention of collectors." In February 1905 

 I applied to the Entomologist with the Government of India who very 

 kindly sent me a note which, he said, " practically gives all I know 

 of the Indian species." Under the head of Tabanidce he mentions 

 " Chrysops dispar, F., recorded as attacking cattle in Baluchistan, and 

 said to be common in India generally. In Bigot's Catalogue of 

 Eastern Diptera (Journal, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LX, p. 265) ; 

 seven species of Chrysops are recorded as occurring in India, with 

 3 species of Pangonia, 2 species of Bcematopofa and 29 species of 

 Tabanus" As regards the Muscidce he says, " Bigot gives no species 

 of Stomoxys from India, but one from Ceylon (St. calcitrans). 1 

 should imagine this will be found also in India. Glossina he does not 

 quote from the East at all." 



Mr. Lefroy also kindly sent his Fieldman to Bombay to hunt for 

 biting flies, but as the hot season had just set in he did not succeed in 

 finding any. Subsequently he wrote to me that he had found Stomoxys 

 and several species of Tabanidcn in Assam, and he sent a lot of 

 pupee by post for the purpose of making experiments. These, however, 

 unfortunately all hatched out in transit and arrived dead. In 



