211> 



AN INSECT ENEMY OF GLOSSIi\'A IN DAHOMEY. 



M. E. KouBAUi) (Coniptes Rendus de I'Academie des Sciences, Paris, 1910, 

 p. 505) gives the following account of some observations on the habits of a 

 wasp of the genus Bemhe.v : — 



'' So few entomophagous insects that ]>rey upon tsetse-flies are known at 

 present, that any observation in this connection is of real interest. Eecently 

 Picard (C. R. Soc. Biologic, Ixvii, July 1909) has published the discovery by 

 Dr. Bouffard, at Bamako, of a Hymenopteron which appears specially to 

 select Glossina as its prey ; this wasp, of the genus 0.r//I>ehfs, chases and 

 captures these flies for the purpose pf provisioning its nest. 



" I have never observed the capture of Glossina by 0.cf/helus, although 

 these Hymenoptera are very common in Tropical Africa on the holies of 

 domestic animals, especially cattle and horses, upon the ^kin of which they 

 alight for the purpose of catching Sfomod\(/s and other Diptera whicih may 

 pass within their reach. BoufFard's observation constitutes the only case^ 

 which has been actually proved, of a predaceous Hymenopteron attacking 

 Glossina. On the C ongo, curtain Europeans have assured us that they have 

 seen wasps, the descri[)tion of which applies sufhciently w ell to Bemhe.v, 

 darting upon tsetse-flies and carrying them off'. I have not been able to 

 confirm this statement during my residence in French Equatorial Africa, 

 although my researches in this connection have been extensive, and I have 

 frequently met with Bemhex on the sand-banks of Stanley Pool. But 

 observations vv^hich I have recently made in Dahomey enable me to place the 

 matter beyond doubt. 



^' Along the banks of the river Wemi, some kilometres above the railway 

 bridge, there is an area frequented by Glossina palpalis and G. longipalpis. 

 In the immediate vicinity of the water and in the shade of the strip of forest 

 along the banks, one finds ^>a/j>rt//5 almost exclusively, frequenting ' the 

 vicinity of man ' ; while further back, in the modei*ately dense scrub which 

 adjoins the strip of forest, it is longipalpis which predominates. 



"On taking a donkey into the zone infested hj longipalpis, 1 oh^QVY^di 

 almost immediately the arrival of several large Bemhex * which assailed the 

 animal after the manner of Tahanus, passing with a rapid flight around the 

 breast and legs, without ever settling. After some moments, one of them 

 seemed to me to dart upon a tsetse and carry it off ; but the movement was 

 so rapid that I could not grasp the details. I then caught one of the Bemhex 



* Dr. Boiivier states that the species has been submitted to Dr. Ilandlirsch, wlio considers 

 it to be new. 



