﻿RESEARCH IN BRITISH WEST AFRTCA. 177 



Not far from Akwete, on the Opobo River, Glossina palpalis occurs, while 

 in the drier regions Chrysops silacea is not uncommon. At the town of Aba, 

 in addition to the latter species, only one blood-sucking insect was seen, namely 

 the mosquito Myzomyia pitchfordi, a by no means common species. 



Ikot-Ekpene. — " The country on the right bank of the Enyong River, extend- 

 ing about 12 miles inland, consists of a succession of hills rising gently from narrow 

 valleys watered by several small streams, choked with palms and other vegeta- 

 tion, and swampy in the wet season. The height of these hills is 200-350 feet. 

 The rest of the district is a tableland, elevated about 200 feet above sea level, 

 broken by the valley of the Kwa-Ibo River, four miles west of Ikot-Ekpene and 

 by that of the Achacha River on the western boundary. All over the district, 

 except for a narrow fringe along the right bank of the Enyong, the original 

 forest has long ago been cleared away for cultivation, and the only large trees 

 remaining stand in town places, burial groves and market-places. The whole 

 country is a patchwork of fields, in various stages of fallowness, clumps of bushes 

 with tall grass and herbage growing between. The sub-soils are loam and sand 

 on a base of sedimentary rock. During the dry season (November to March) 

 water is extremely scarce in the southern and central parts — no village, however, 

 is more than a few hours' walk from some stream. There is nowhere any collec- 

 tion of huts large enough to be called a town • each village community consists 

 of a number of isolated family compounds, separated from one another by groves 

 of bush and small patches of crops." 



No Tabanidae, Glossina or Anophelines were seen during a week's 

 stay in this district, but Culicines were very abundant. The following species 

 were found : — Culex duttoni, C. grahami, C. insignis, C. tigripes var. fuscus and 

 Culiciomyia nebulosa. The only other blood-sucking insect obtained was Cteno- 

 cephalus canis, but Culicoides is said to be very troublesome during the rains. 



Near the European quarters there is a large swamp which constitutes the main 

 breeding-ground for mosquitos, but the abolition of this within a short period 

 is almost impracticable without an enormous outlay. A certain amount of work 

 has already been accomplished, which has resulted in the area being considerably 

 diminished. Both the political and medical officers on the station are fully alive 

 to the necessity of a still further reduction, and it is to be hoped that an annual 

 grant may be voted to carry on the work so efficiently begun. In the pools of 

 water in this swamp large numbers of a small fish, Hemicliromis fasciatus, belonging 

 to the family Cichlid^, abounds. Mr. G. A. Boulenger in a letter to me with 

 regard to this species says " This fish, known to take a fly, must, in my opinion, 

 be a good mosquito-larvae destroyer." Every effort should therefore be made to 

 prevent its destruction. 



Okigwi. — The Okigwi district lies at the head of the River Imo and is conse- 

 quently in the same river system as Opobo and Owerri. The country is covered 

 for the most part with thick bush, but scattered about are open patches, while in 

 the north it is very hilly, with rolling grass plains. Near the River Imo there 

 are extensive swamps during the rains. 



This region I visited during the dry season, when insect-life was far from 

 plentiful. No biting flies were seen at the station of Okigwi, but in a large 



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