683 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
No. I.—AN APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE IN COLLECTING GAD.- 
FLIES, BOT-FLIES, AND WARBLE-FLIES. 
With reference to Captain Nurse’s Note in the Society’s Journal regarding 
a Horse Bot«fly bred by him at Deesa, the specimens referred to have passed 
through my hands, and I have been able to identify them as Gastrophilus 
pecorum, @ and. In spite of the misleading specific name the host is given 
in the text-books as Equuscaballus, Inv.d. Wulp’s Catalogue of the Diptera 
of S, Asia (1896) only two species of istride are mentioned, viz., G. equi 
and Therobia abdominalis ; since the publication of that work two species, v7z., 
Cobboldia elephantis and G'yrostoma sumatrensis (the latter from larve only), 
have been added by Professor Brauer,of Vienna. In addition to G. pecorum, 
as above, Captain Nurse obtained at Simla a specimen of Gistrus ovis (an exam- 
ple of this. species without locality is also in the B.N.H. &.’s collceHon 
This exhausts our knowledge of Indian Gad-flies, 
From the above it will be seen how meagre is our knowledge of the family, 
and it is in the hope of increasing it that I venture to appeal to members of 
the Society for assistance in collecting specimens of imagines, larve, and 
pupe. With this object it will be, perhaps, advisable to give a list of 
the flies likely to be met with, their hosts, and a slight sketch of their life- 
histories, 
A. Bot-flies : (Larve internal parasites in the stomach and intestines). 
Horst :—Gastrophilus equi, pecorum, nasalis and hemorrhoidalis—All of these 
species have the same habits and are easily bred ; it is only necessary to 
place the bots, after having been passed by the horse, in a jam-pot or 
other receptacle with some dead leaves, saw-dust, &c,, for them to pupate 
under, 
Ass :—Probably all four of the above species infest the ass also, while in 
addition G@. equi, var, asinina is said to be peculiar to the donkey. This is a 
point requiring further investigation, 
ELEPHANT ;—Cobboldia elephantis—This is probably the most interesting Bot- 
fly known, it has been bred (by Professor Brauer alone) from bots passed by 
an elephant from Bangulore living in captivity at Vienna, The bots were des- 
eribed many years ago by Cobbold, but it was left to Professor Brauer to rear 
and describe the perfect insect, A coloured drawing of the perfect insect will 
be found in the Beitrage zur MKeutvin ausseren ropaischer Gistrodan by Dr, 
Brauer in the Deuk, K. A-ad. Wiss. Wien,, Vol. XLIV., 1896. The bots are 
said to be passed by the elephants in the early morning, so a hint to the 
mahouts and coolies to examine the morning droppings of their charges may 
lead to some captures, Should any member of the Society at Bangalore, 
Baroda, or elsewhere be lucky enough to obtain these bots, their treatment 
should be the same as that of those bots, I believe the Vienna Museum is the 
16 
