220 Forty-second Report on the State Museum, [78] 

 Heematobia (Lyperosia) serrata (Rob. Desv.). 

 The Cow-horn Fly. 



(Ord. Diptera: Fam. Stomoxydjs.) 



Heematobia serrata Rob. Desvoidy : Essai sur les Myodaires, 1830, p. 389, 3. 

 Heematobia serrata. Macquart : Suites a Buffon, ii, 1835, p. 244. 

 Lyperosia serrata Rondani : Dipterologiae Italicee Prodomus, v, 1862, p. 231. 

 Priophora serrata Rob Desv. : Hist. Nat. Dipt., 1863. 



Stomoxys cornicola Williston MS. : Lintner : in Count. Gent, for Oct. 18, 



1888, liii, p. 779. 



Heematobia serrata. Lintner : in Count. Gent, for Nov. 29, 1888, liii, p. 893. 

 Heematobia cornicola Williston. Smith : in Count. Gent, for Aug. 8, 1889, 



liv, p. 591-2 (description, figures, habits, etc.) : Bull. F. N. Jer. Agri- 



cul. Col. Exp. St., 1889 (habits and remedies). 

 Heematobia cornicola Williston : in Entomolog. Amer. for Sept., 1889, v, p. 



180-1 (figure, description and notes).— Howard : in Insect Life, ii, 



1889, p. 60. 



" The Texas fly." Lintner : in Count. Gent, for Sept. 20, 1888, p. 705 ; id. 



for Oct. 11, 1888, p. 759. 

 "The Buffalo or Texas fly." Pacific Rural Press for Aug. 3, 1889, p. 89 



(in Iowa). 



Heematobia serrata occurs in Europe, in Southern France and in Italy, 

 where it is reported as tormenting cattle. Beyond this, very little, so 

 far as we know, has been w T ritten of it and we may therefore infer that 

 it has not been regarded in its native home as a particular pest. 



Its introduction into this country must have been of recent date. 

 It seems to have been first noticed in Chester county, Penn., in the 

 year 1886. In the autumn of 1887, the attention of Professor Cope, of 

 Philadelphia, was drawn to the fly, as greatly annoying cattle and con- 

 gregating in large numbers on and around their horns. My attention 

 was called to it in the summer of 1888, through a communication sub- 

 mitted to me and published in the Country Gentleman of September 

 twentieth, as follows: 



Farmers in this neighborhood are making quite a time about a small 

 fly that gets on their cows' horns. They say that they bore into the 

 horn and deposit an egg that hatches, and the grub burrows into 

 the head of the cow and produces death. They are putting tar over 

 the cows' heads and horns, which I do not wish to do. They call it 

 the Texas fly. Please answer in your valuable paper if there is any 

 danger, or whether it is all moonshine. H. F. A., Hamilton Square, N. J. 



Reply was made to the above of ignorance of any insect having the 

 habits above described and a doubt of the existence of such. That 

 an injury of this nature might be inflicted was within the range of 

 possibility, but if the fly existed in Texas, or elsewhere in the United 



