BIOLOGICAL NOTES ON BLOODSUCKING FLIES 235 



PUPIPARA 



The suborder Pupipara is composed of several families of the queerest 

 flies in the order. The insects of the families Nycteribiidae, Streblidae 

 and Hippoboscidae are all ectoparasites on warm blood vertebrates. All 

 of the Streblidae and Nycteribiidae of which the life history is known, 

 are parasitic on bats and some of thiem are quite probably the carriers 

 of bat diseases. In the family Hippoboscidae we find the genera Lynchia, 

 Hippobosca and Omithomyia, mentioned as carriers of disease, and also 

 Melophagus to which belongs M. ovinus Linnaeus, the sheep tick. The 

 flies of the genus Lynchia which carry pigeon malaria, live almost 

 exclusively on pigeons. They deposit larvas in the pigeon houses ; these 

 larvae become puparia in an hour. Hippobosca is composed principally 

 of species parasitic on mammals, one of which is thought to carry the 

 gall sickness of horses in South Africa. The females deposit larvaj which 

 are incapable of movement. They slowly darken until the puparium 

 resembles a seed. Lipoptena cervi is parasitic on deer. Melophagus 

 ovinus, which js wingless, lives on sheep, sometimes proving to be an 

 important pest. This insect may be eradicated by giving two thorough 

 dippings at 24-day intervals in lime-sulphur-arsenic solution or in stand- 

 ard coal tar-creosote or cresol dips, or nicotin solution (Imes). 



Outside of the stable fly and sheep tick, control measures for biting 

 flies are not well worked out. Of course the primary essentials are 

 protection of the animals from the bites of the flies and prevention of 

 breeding. 



KErEBENCES 



Bishopp, r. C, 1913.— The Stable Fly. U. S. Dept. Agric, Farmers' Bull. 

 540. Available for free distribution. 



GraybUl, H. W., 1914. — Repellents for Protecting Animals from the 

 Attacks of Flies. U. S. Dept. Agric, Bull. 131. 



Hindle, Edward, 1914. — Flies in Relation to Disease. Blood-Sucking 

 Flies. Cambridge Univ. Press. 



Imes, Marion, 1917. — The Sheep Tick and Its Eradication by Dipping. 

 U. S. Dept. Agric, Farmers' Bull. 798. Available for free dis- 

 tribution. 



Jobbins-Pomeroy, A. W., 1916. — Notes on Five North American Buffalo 

 Gnats of the Genus Simulium. U. S. Dept. Agric, bull. 329. 



Malloch, J. R., 1914. — ^American Black Flies or Buffalo Gnats. U. S. 

 Dept. Agric, Bur, Entom., Tech. Bull. 26. 



Marlatt, C. L., 1910. — The Horn Fly. ~ U. S. Dept. Agric, Bur. Entom., 

 Circ. 115. 



Patton, W. S., and Cragg, F. W., 1913. — A Textbook of Medical Ento- 

 mology. 



