400 TEE ZOOLOGIST. 



A Monograph of the Tsetse-Flies (Genus Glossina, Westw.), based 

 on the Collection in the British Museum. By Ernest 

 Edward Austen ; with a Chapter on Mouth-parts, by 

 H. J. Hansen, Ph.D. Printed by order of the Trustees 

 of the British Museum. 



This monograph is devoted to seven species of insects, which 

 represent a genus that has proved a curse to the development of 

 South and Central Africa ; was sufficient to cause the ruin of the 

 early Portuguese expeditions in the sixteenth and seventeenth 

 centuries; and wrecked an early Boer trek in 1836 which was 

 migrating from British influence towards Delagoa Bay. Donkeys 

 have been credited with an immunity from the attacks of these 

 flies, and many an expedition has been organised with Donkey 

 transport, with a prospective defiance of the Tsetse and an 

 almost certain bait for Lions. It will thus be seen, that this fly 

 is an enemy of the first importance to be dealt with in the 

 industrial development of a country, which it is now a misnomer 

 to call the " Dark Continent." 



The first real contribution to a scientific knowledge of the 

 destructive powers of these flies was made by Col. Bruce, who 

 proved that the deaths of horses and cattle caused by Tsetse 

 were due to the introduction into the blood of the victims of a 

 minute parasite, the Trypanosoma brucei, a discovery afterwards 

 confirmed by similar observations made in South America and 

 Algeria. Castellani has also discovered a Trypanosoma in the 

 cerebro-spinal fluid of nearly seventy per cent, of the vast holo- 

 caust of natives who have recently succumbed to " sleeping- 

 sickness." 



In order that the subject should be made entomologically 

 applicable, the Director and Trustees of our National Museum 

 entrusted Mr. Austen, who is well known as a dipterologist, with 

 the task of preparing a monograph of the genus. This he has 

 done in a very thorough manner, and has added a bibliographical 

 list of many books in African literature which refer to these 

 insects. The seven species are also fully and accurately de- 

 scribed, and beautifully illustrated by coloured plates. Dr. 

 Hansen, of Copenhagen, has also contributed a valuable paper 

 on " The Mouth-parts of Glossina and Stomoxys." 



