No. 2.] Reprints and Miscellaneous Notes. 79 



REPRINTS AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



INDIAN " FOREST FLIES." 



Hippobosca ( ^gyptiaca ?,) Macq. 



(Reprint of a report published in The Veterinary Record, by Miss Eleanor 

 A. Ormerod, F. E. S., etc., in August 1895.) 



On the 26th ultimo I received from Messrs. R. S. Hart, the 

 eminent veterinary surgeons of Calcutta, a liberal supply of "Forest 

 flies " with the mention that they were "common in Bengal and in 

 other parts of India." From details given these Hippobosca were 

 shown to be very similar in habits to the kind which we have in this 

 country, also that although they infested dogs, it was to horses that 

 they were most troublesome. It was noted " some horses are driven 

 mad even by the presence of a single fly, and in driving along not 

 unfrequently start kicking most violently, kicking over the traces 

 and shafts, and frequently running away with the carriage," etc. 

 The locality of the infestation on the horses was noted as the same 

 as with us, and the specimens sent me were certainly " Forest flies," 

 that is of the genus Hippobosca^ but differed from the Hippobosca 

 equina^ our too well known species, in being rather larger and also 

 in the neuration of the wings ; also in the back (the thorax ento- 

 mologically) being very much more marked with small yellowish 

 patches, and the scutellum (the small portion of the hinder part of 

 the thorax immediately above the abdomen) having a central pale 

 yellow marking and two side ones on a dark ground, instead of as 

 with the equina^ only one central pale marking. 



As the precise identification of these Forest flies was of consider- 

 able importance in connection with such valuable notes as those of 

 Messrs. Hart, i forwarded a good supply of specimens to one of the 

 entomologists at the Museo Civico at Genoa, where I was aware 

 that there were trustworthy types of various of the exotic species 

 of Hippobosca, and he was good enough to compare Messrs. Hart's 

 specimens for me. 



These, he told me, were certainly not of Hippobosca equina, nor 

 of canina, nor of bactriana, nor camelina^ but they greatly resem- 

 bled the Hippobosca ^gyptiaca^ Macq,, of which he was good 

 enough to give me a type specimen (identified by Professor Rondani 

 himself) for my own comparison. After the most minute and careful 

 examination which I have been able to make I cannot find any point 

 of specific difference between this type specimen and those sent 

 from Calcutta, They correspond quite precisely in the peculiar 

 neuration of the wings which differs markedly from that of the 



