264 W. A. LAMTJORN. 



sandy soil of the path and in the mud of the river bank. A few females were found 

 in the daytime, resting low down on the tree-trunks, and one was taken at 10 a.m. 

 in a well shaded nook off the leg of a boy who called my attention to it, saying that 

 it had bitten him, and I found that it was distended with fresh blood. 



Fifteen of the flies were placed in captivity on 12th February and were afforded 

 an opportunity daily of feeding on the blood of a goat. On this diet they throve 

 for fourteen days, during which two only died ; then a large number of small black 

 ants made a raid on them and killed nine before they were discovered. The 

 remaining three died off one by one, the last nine days later, having accordingly 

 lived on goat's blood solely for twenty-three days. 



The other habits of the species were found to accord with those described by 

 other observers. 



An attempt was made by releasing marked flies near by to ascertain whether they 

 would return to this particular spot, but none were ever recovered. 



Later on, an opportunity was taken to study Glossina hrevipalpis in its haunts 

 nearer Lake Nyasa. The locality there affected by it lies for some three or four 

 miles along the Lake shore between the two mouths of the river Lingadzi, and on 

 either bank for three or four miles inland, and it is characterised by the great density 

 of its vegetation, a large variety of shrubs, herbaceous plants, and tall grasses, all 

 laced together by several species of convolvulus, and leguminous climbers, the 

 irritating Mucuna bean in particular, growing beneath large trees of the Acacia 

 type, from the branches of which depend lianas. The bush is here far thicker than 

 I have seen it elsewhere in the country and reminds one of that seen in the coastal 

 belt of tropical West Africa. 



The soil is light and sandy, and contains even now, after four months drought,, 

 plenty of moisture, so that along paths cleared only three weeks ago the young 

 grass is already ankle-high and I am informed that it is not as a rule possible to 

 burn it off till October or November, when the rains are again due. 



There are several villages, the inhabitants of which have cleared large garden 

 plots, and in some of these even at this season young maize, planted in depressions 

 hollowed in the ground, is thriving, though rather dwarfed in growth. 



This bush is traversed by numerous winding game paths, and it affords shelter 

 to a large variety of game animals, in fact, I found the fly first along a game path 

 down which a herd of water buck had just passed on their way to the lake. 



I beheve that the presence of this species of fly is conditioned solely by the 

 presence of dense vegetation, affording at all times adequate shade and the gloom 

 favourable to an insect of crepuscular habits. Its presence on the Lingadzi estate 

 where indigenous trees are practically absent, and where these conditions are 

 obtained through closely planted and untrimmed evergreen citrus and other fruit 

 trees, would seem to indicate that its presence is not influenced by any special kind 

 of vegetation. 



When endeavouring to discover the breeding grounds of this fly, my attention 

 was at first naturally concentrated on places similar to those utilised by morsitans, 

 and in some of these, under the shelter of fallen dead trees, I found pupa-cases 



