486 ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF DERMATOBIA HOMNIS. 



II. HISTORICAL REVIEW 



Most of the authors who have contributed to our knowledge of this species have 

 been French, though we owe the splendid monographic treatment of the family to 

 a German, F. Brauer, and a number of most important contributions have come 

 recently from Spanish Americans. It has seemed to me important in a special later 

 section of the paper to review critically all cases recorded in the United States. A 

 similar detailed consideration will not be necessary in other cases. Of the seventy 

 or eighty papers which deal more or less with this form, most are based on observa- 

 tions drawn from the study of a single specimen, and too often without due regard 

 to previous work on the part of others, and are often inaccurate and repetitive. Since 

 Blanch ard in a series of papers ('92, '94, '97) has covered the historical part of this 

 subject so thoroughly and critically, an historical review beyond a few brief notes and 

 an account of Blanchard's work itself will not be necessary here. 



The form under consideration has been known for more than a century and a 

 half, for Blanchard begins the first of his splendid series of contributions on the sub- 

 ject with a citation from de la Condamine (1749) which not only gives the name, 

 ver macaque, still used to designate the larva, but also states distinctly the habitat 

 and general effects of the parasite. In this paper Blanchard ('92) reviews analyti- 

 cally and in chronological order thirty-one supposed records of this parasite. He 

 adds a careful description of ten larvae which came from five widely separated localities; 

 among these he was able to distinguish four forms in accordance with the synopsis 

 quoted below. While the larvae previously described could generally be assigned 

 to one of these forms, there remained recorded fifteen cases, a determination of which 

 could not be made for lack of distinctive evidence. Two of these, Blanchard's cases 

 24 and 30 (Verrill, '72, and James, '89), must certainly be striken from the list, as 

 Blanchard suggested and as I shall show later. The synopsis given by Blanchard is 

 as follows: 



Somites II and III: 



(a) dotted with very fine spinules Ver macaque. 



(a') or smooth, without spinules. 

 Posterior margin of somite VIII: 



(6) with rows of hooks in anteversion on dorsal face Berne. 



(b') or without rows of hooks. 



Anterior margin of somite III: 



(c) with complete girdle of hooks Torcel. 



(</) or girdle wanting on ventral surface Ver moyocuil. 



Blanchard inclined to the view that these represented four distinct species, but 

 regarded their assignment to definite adults as pure presumption. Since they occurred 



