TSETSE FLIES 855 



has other sources of obtaining nourishment than 

 those afforded by the presence of the blood of 

 either wild or domestic beasts. I am satisfied 

 that on no less than two occasions I have seen 

 these insects in the act of sucking vegetable 

 juices, and I have conveyed full particulars of my 

 observations to the proper quarter. My state- 

 ments were apparently not welcomed, and there, 

 so far as I am concerned, the matter ends. I may 

 have been mistaken ; I may be told that the pro- 

 boscis of the tsetse fly does not admit of this 

 insect's alimentation by other means than those 

 afforded by mammalian blood, but I shall always 

 firmly believe that they are, upon occasion, 

 capable of maintaining themselves upon vege- 

 table juices, and I shall always believe that I have 

 seen them in the act of doing so.^ 



Let me not, however, be understood, in any 

 single word that I have penned upon this import- 

 ant subject, as having been actuated by any 

 desire to undervalue or belittle the splendid and 

 invaluable services which, in this most difficult 

 and delicate investigation, expert and courageous 

 men like Dr. Warrington Yorke and his devoted 

 colleagues have so successfully rendered, not only 

 to science, but to every individual, of whatsoever 

 nationality, who may seek in the future a South 

 Central African home. Their deeds and their 

 discoveries will live for ever, and nobody more than 

 myself will entertain for them a greater or more 



1 In the Republic of Liberia, where I|have recently located 

 Glossina palpalis, this insect is commonly called the ' ' Mango 

 Fly " from its alleged fondness for the fruit of that tree. 



