BIOLOGICAL NOTES ON BLOODSUCKING FLIES 229 



usually found in the darkest parts of the native huts. The females have 

 two periods of oviposition about one month apart, and may deposit a 

 total of as many as 83 eggs. They oviposit on the ground in the huts, 

 preferably where urine has been voided. The larvae are exclusively blood 

 feeders. They are able to resist starvation for long periods. If fed regu- 

 larly they may mature in about 15 days. They remain in hiding during 

 the day and suck the blood of sleepers at night. Pupation occurs in 

 the puparium or last larval skin. The fly is probably spread from village 

 to village in the egg or larval stage in the dirty mats which the natives 

 carry about with them. 



Travelers in Africa should always avoid sleeping in native huts 

 or on the ground in the vicinity of corrals or native villages, because of 

 these larvae and also many other venomous and disease-bearing pests. 



The African genus Choeromyia also has bloodsucking larvae, the 

 attack of which is not to be confused with the myiasis caused by the 

 larvae of related genera, because these larvae are free living and do not 

 remain attached to the host. 



Bitmg Species of Musca 



The genus Musca apparently is a transitional genus as it contains 

 both non-bloodsucking and bloodsucking flies. Musca pattom Austen, 

 M. gibsoni Patton and Cragg, M. convexifrons Thomson, M. nigrithorax 

 Stein, M. bezzii Patton and Cragg and M. corvma Fabricius, all of India 

 except the last, which is European, are bloodsucking. But these flies 

 are incapable of puncturing the skin of an animal. They feed on the 

 blood and serum exuding from the bites of other bloodsucking flies. 

 These flies breed in cow dung. M. pattom always deposits in dung where 

 it is collected in heaps, while gibsoni and convexifrons deposit in isolated 

 patches of cow dung. 



Triie Biting Flies 



The true biting Muscids belong to the subfamilies Stomoxydinae, 

 Glossininae and Philaematomyinae. 



Philaematomyia is a genus closely resembling Musca in appearance. 

 It contains three Asiatic species, of which the best known is P. insignis 

 Austen, which only attacks cattle. It breeds in cow dung where it is 

 collected in heaps. Both sexes feed on blood although they have also 

 been seen feeding on cow dung. This habit would surely make it possible 

 for the fly to mechanically carry infectious diseases from dung to blood. 

 It breeds quite rapidly. 



