340 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



perhaps a more pungent odor. We published in the American Ento- 

 mologist, Vol. Ill, p. 100 (July, 1880), a detailed description of the larva, 

 which it will be unnecessary to repeat here. 



The beetle is extremely variable in its coloration, and it may not be 

 amiss it this place to repeat in connection with Plate VIII, Fig. 2, a, 6, 

 c, rf, e, for purposes of identification, the description which we have 

 given (ibid.) of certain of the more marked varieties. Combinations, 

 however, in many degrees, of these varieties occur. 



a. Typical. Black, with a tinge of blue ; basal joints of antennas beneath, thickened 



thoracic margin with exception of a small round spot at the middle, elytra with 

 exception of suture and three lines of interrupted black markings, base of fe- 

 mora and part of tibia}, and sides and apex of abdomen, testaceous yellow. 

 (Common West.) 



b. Variations in general Coloration: 



1. Base of 'antennae, head, underside, and legs of the same yellowish color as upper 



side. (From Texas.) 

 a. Thorax testaceous-yellow, or more reddish, with the two lateral markings and 

 a T-shaped mark on the disk blackish. 

 Thorax entirely testaceous-yellow. 



2. Principal color above "and beneath blue; legs blue. 



y. Sides of thorax as in typical form. Elytra with faint yellow marking. (From 

 California.) 



(5. Sides of thorax as in typical form. Elytra nnicolorous blue. (From California.) 

 e. Entirely blue, except a narrow lateral yellowish marking each side on the last 

 abnominal joint. 



c. Variations in the Markings of the Elytra : 



1. Marked with black as follows: the suture; two, more or less, oval spots near 



the base, the inner of which is nearer to the suture than to the lateral margin, 

 and the outer on the humerus; three longitudinal striae on the middle, the in- 

 termediate of which is the longest ; sub marginal curved stria and an oval spot 

 between the latter and the suture. (Common West.) 



2. Additional marks: A small triangular basal spot in front and between the two 



subbasal markings. (Illinois.) 

 a. This triangular spot is sometimes connected with the humeral spot. (Califor- 

 nia.) 



J3. Black markings become wider or longer and then often confluent. 

 y. Markings in general becoming smaller, either all of them, or one or several of 

 them. 



THE SOUTHERN BUFFALO GNAT. 

 (Simulium sp.)* 

 Order Diptera; Family Simulid^e. 

 [Plate IX, Figs. 1, 2, 3.] 



LOSSES m FORMER YEARS. 



For many years past one of the greatest pests the stock-raiser of the 

 South and West has had to contend with has been the so-called " Buf- 

 falo Gnat." This iusect is a small Hy ? closely related to the well-known 

 '* Black Fly " of the Northwestern woods. At certain seasons it swarms 

 in immense numbers, and by its poisonous bite, multiplied a thousand- 

 fold, causes great destruction amongst sheep, hogs, poultry, cattle, 

 horses, and mules. In 1872 it was reported that the loss of horses in 

 Crittenden County, Arkansas, from this source, exceeded the loss from 



*The species concerned in the damage in the Southwest, and which goes by the 

 name of "The Butialo Gnat," has not, so far as we are aware, been specifically deter- 

 mined. The only specimens we have seen were received from Mr. M. H. Thompson, of 

 Pecan Point, Ark., and these were so mutilated that identification was impossible. 

 The genus is also a difficult one on account of the insufficient descriptions extant and 

 the great general resemblance of the species. 



