1884.] Prof. Brauer— On the Peepsa. 161 



Mr. Cockburn's specimen presents a similar point of interest : it is from 

 a kankar matrix and looks almost recent, but on comparison with our 

 collections in the Indian Museum it proves to be the quadrate bone of 

 some large ruminant, and to resemble that of the giraffe very closely ; 

 as might be expected it belongs to a species different from the existing 

 African giraffe, and differs also from the same bone in a very fine tarsus 

 of the Camelopardus sivalensis preserved in the Indian Museum in being 

 slightly shallower in proportion to its breadth. It, however, almost 

 certainly belongs to a giraffe, a genus which I need not remind you is 

 now extinct in India. 



Mr. Cockburn has written to me that he will endeavour to procure 

 a considerable series of these fossils during the coming cold weather, 

 and I have no doubt that when this series is examined, it will prove the 

 correctness of the statement I have made, that this is one of the most 

 important discoveries laid before the Society for some years past. 



The Peesident said that the discovery of vertebrate fossils in the 

 Jumna alluvium ranked among the earliest paleeontological discoveries 

 in India, and he believed nothing had been added to the original find, 

 although dated so far back in the history of Indian science. The 

 present additions were therefore of much interest, and he would hope 

 they might be taken as an earnest of more to follow. 



The following papers were read — 



1. On the Peepsa, a small Dipterous Insect, injurious to man in 

 Assam. — By Peof. De. Beauee. Communicated by J. Wood-Mason, 

 Natural History Secretary, A. 8. B. 



(Translated from the German.) 



These animals belong to the gnats, and more particularly to the 

 genus Simulium, Latreille. The species has not yet been described, 

 but approaches very nearly Simulium ornatum, which occurs in Austria. 

 The Simulia are feared everywhere on account of their piercing proboscis, 

 and are a real pest in some parts of Hungary and Servia. They are 

 called there " Columbazer Miicke," and make their appearance in extra- 

 ordinary numbers, so that people can venture into the open only at 

 night ; numbers of cattle are killed by the flies, which get into the nose 

 and windpipe of the cattle, and thus suffocate them. Fortunately the 

 flies appear there only for a fortnight. 



The Simulia develope in running water. The eggs are deposited on 

 leaves on the surface ; the larvae are suspended from submerged plants, 

 so also are the nymphae, for which they spin a cone-shaped cocoon. 



All plans to diminish the number of these flies have been hitherto 

 without success, as they cannot be exterminated in the water or only to a 



