375 
When, in July, 1894, 1 stopped for a few days at Crescent City, Fla., and 
visited, in the company of Mr. H. G. Hubbard, other parts of this State, 
I was more than ever impressed with the importance of these little tor- 
mentors, so that I fail to understand why in all our literature there is 
not even the slightest allusion to them. Since no one else seems to be 
willing to make a beginning, I have ventured to record the following 
fragmentary notes* for the sole purpose of drawing attention to this 
subject. Xothing is known at present of the life history or early 
stages of these liies. 
Since these flies can not "bite" it may prox>erly be asked wherein 
the nature of the annoyance consists and what renders them such an 
unbearable and dangerous nuisance. First, they "sing" almost as 
perceptibly as a mosquito, and since everyone is quite sensible to this 
well-known sound it is, to say the least, not very pleasant to have these 
flics constantly around you. Secondly, they settle in crowds all over 
your person to suck up the perspiration, and the annoyance caused by 
their crawling over the face, neck, and hands is much greater than one 
would expect from such small insects. But this kind of annoyance 
could readily be endured with a little patience and practice by all per- 
sons who are not of a nervous temperament if the flies had not the 
pernicious habit and passion to settle in the corners of the eyes, being 
attracted by the moisture of this place. This causes the greatest and 
almost unbearable annoyance and irritation which is of course still 
further increased by constant efforts to wipe the flies away. 
The above relates solely to the annoyance caused by the Hippelates 
flies, but there are other facts which stamp them as one of our most 
dangerous pests: Sore spots, scratches, ulcers, and other open wounds 
have the greatest attraction for them; they not only thickly crowd on 
such places which may be about your head and hands, but they crawl 
beneath your clothing if a sore or other wound should happen to be on 
your leg or breast. 
If only your own person were concerned the matter would pre- 
sent no particularly dangerous aspect, but look at the dog lying on the 
ground only a few steps from you. From flea bites or other causes he 
has suppurating sores on the back or belly, which, of course, are thickly 
covered with the flies. Unable to stand longer the irritation the dog 
suddenly rises and shakes off the flies. Y ou can plainly see that many of 
them come toward you and settle on your person, some of them sure 
to get in the corners of your eyes. Or, another person approaches 
you on the road: the man is plainly suffering from "sore eyes," a com- 
mon disease among poor people iu the South, or you happen to know 
that the person is afflicted with some other disease. He is, of coarse, 
* These notes were read before the meeting of the Entomological Society of Wash- 
ington held October 11, 1894. Several members of the society participated in the 
discussion and some valuable additional information was thus obtained, which is 
included in this articde. 
