170 ERNEST E. AUSTEN— NEW AFRICAN HIPPOBOSCID^. 



Head sliiniug straw-yellow, sides of front shining buff-yellow, frontal stripe 

 dull Vandyke-brown ; palpi dark brown, clothed with liair of same colour and 

 character as that on head itself ; inner margins of sides of front fringed with 

 long hair. Thorax : Naples-yellow markings on dorsum (except scutelhim) of 

 same kind as those exhibited by Hippobosca maculata. Leach, and //. camclina, 

 Leach, but much less distinct and sharply defined ; in front of transverse suture, 

 transverse mark behind each himieral callus, though present, is usually less distinct 

 than it appears in fig. 1 a, while in middle line, and resting on transverse suture, 

 the lateral arms of the mark that in case of H. maculata resembles a cruciform 

 sword-hilt are shortened and rounded off, much as they are in //. camelina ; 

 behind transverse suture the median rhomboid mark seen in //. maculata has 

 disappeared, and the admedian marks, instead of having definite outlines, as is 

 usually the case in H. maculata, are ill-defined and more or less indistinct {cf. a 

 and c, fig. 1); basalangles of scutellum Naples-yellow; hair on pectus paler, 

 finer, and denser than on dorsum. Wings : sepia-coloured, principal veins 

 dark brown. Legs : last joint of middle and hind tarsi dark brown above ; 

 claws black. 



Uganda Protectorate: type of (^ , type of Q, and one other Q from 

 Mohokya, Toro Plains, 14. IIL 1911 {Dr. R. A. L. Van Sumeren) ; also 

 ^ d d from the vicinity of the north-east shore of Lake Ruisamba (or Dweru), 

 South Toro, 1910 (Captain F. P. Machie, I. M.S., per Colonel Sir David 

 Bruce, C.B., A.M.S., F.E.S.). 



All the foregoing specimens, as well as those enumerated below as belonging 

 to a variety of Ilippohosca hirsuta, were caught on Waterbucks (Kobus dcfassa, 

 Eiippell), on which antelope this fly would consequently appear to be specially 

 parasitic. Whether indeed it occurs on any other species of game cannot yet be 

 stated. As regards the possibility of its playing a part in the dissemination of 

 animal trypanosomiases, while prolonged experiments and obsei'vations will of 

 course be needed in order to determine whether H. hirsuta ever acts as a disease- 

 carrier if it should find its way on to domestic animals, it may be interesting to 

 note that, when writing to the author from Toro, in February last. Dr. Van Someren 

 mentioned that he had " infected a monkey with these fly caught on a Waterbuck, 

 whose blood showed trypanosomes (? T. pecorum, Bruce)." 



While evidently allied to Hippobosca maculata, Leach, reddish specimens of 

 which it resembles in general appearance, H. hirsuta, in addition to the diff'erences 

 in the thoracic markings described and illustrated above, is distinguishable from 

 that widely distributed species by the much greater A\'idth of its front and frontal 

 stripe,** the hairiness of the dorsum of the thorax, and the absence of a dark 

 brown, elongate patch on the inside of the distal extremity of the hind tibiaj. 

 The infuscation of the distal extremities of the middle and hind femora in 

 H. maculata, though often very extensive and much more so than the corre- 

 sponding markings in the case of H. hirsuta, is subject to considerable 

 individual variation, and cannot be relied upon as a distinctive character. 



From Hippobosca camelina, Leach, H. hirsuta, apart from its smaller size, may 

 be distinguished by the indistinctness of the post-sutural, admedian, thoracic 



* These differences are unfortunately not brought out with sufficient oleai'ness in the figures. 



