REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



343 



running streams in the vicinity of Washington. This article contains 

 also an able review of previous writings on the subject, and is illus- 

 trated with figures taken from Verdat. 



Iu the American Entomologist (Vol. Ill, pp. 191-193, August, 1880) 

 Dr. W. S. Barnard described the stages, with figures of the eggs, of a 

 species common in the mountain streams around Ithaca, X. Y. The 

 eggs were found on the rocks on the banks a few inches above the sur- 

 face of the water; the newly-hatched larvae were just at the surface, 

 and from this point there was a regular gradation in the size of the 

 larvae down into the stream. The eggs were found abundantly on the 

 1st of June. 



In the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History for Jan- 

 uary, 1880, Dr. Hagen described Simulium pictipes, a remarkably large 

 species, the larvse and pupae of which were found in the rapids of the 

 Au Sable Kiver, Adirondack Mountains, and in mentioning the fact in 

 the American Naturalist for April, 1881, we stated that the larvae and 

 pupae of presumably the same species were found by Messrs. Hubbard 

 and Schwarz in the rapids of the Michipicoten Kiver, north shore of 

 Lake Superior. The larvae were there found to have the peculiarity t)f 

 floating in long strings, attached to each other by silken threads, while 

 the pupae, found in the quieter pools close by, resembled clusters of 

 coral.* 



The history of the early stages of the "Buffalo Gnat" of the South- 

 west has never been made out, but a good idea of the probable appear- 

 ance of the larvae and pupae and of their probable habits will have been 

 gained from what precedes, and from the figures (PI. IX, Figs. 1, 2, 3), 

 and we hope soon to hear from observers in the South and West that 

 the life-history of the species is thoroughly understood. 



RECENT RAVAGES. 



The "Buffalo Gnat "has been especially injurious since the Mississippi 

 floods of 1881 and 1882. In 1882 the papers contained many notices of 

 the damage similar to the following, which we clip from the American 

 Orange Bulletin of June 22, 1882 : 



u The Buffalo Gnat has appeared this spring in immense numbers in 

 Eastern Kansas, Western Tennessee, and Western Mississippi, and the 

 great destruction of cattle, horses, and mules caused by it has added to 

 the distress of the inhabitants of those sections of the country caused 

 by the unprecedented floods." 



Some localities along the Mississippi Kiver, in Arkansas, also suffered 

 severely in 1882, as the following communica tion from Mr. M. H. Thomp- 

 son, of Pecan Point, Ark., under date of March 21, 1882, will show : 



This day I send you by mail a specimen of gnat called the " Buffalo Gnat." They 

 come with the first spring-days. This season they are here iu couutless millions, more 

 than were ever known. They kill work-stock in a few hours ; mflny have already died 

 from the effects of their bite/ We lost in one day last week three mules. Generally 

 they can be kept off by applying tisb oil on the horse. This season it is of no avail, 

 and the only remedy is to put the horse in the stable, when they at once leave him, 

 supposed to be from the smell of ammonia in the stables. No planter here on the 

 river bottoms can plant now on account of them. They are supposed to remain until 

 hot weather, which drives them away. * * * Horses bitten by them swell and act 



*We also hazarded the statement that these were the immature forms of the cele- 

 brated "black fly" of the Lake Superior region; but Dr. Hagen, in comparison of 

 specimens of these larvae and pupae received from Mr. Hubbard, with similar stages 

 of 8. irictipes, remarked (Canadian Entomologist, Vol. XIII, pp. 150, 151) that while the 

 larvae and pupae did not differ materially, imagines from Lake Superior (not raised 

 from pupas collected by Mr. Hubbard) differed irom S. pictipes in their much smaller 

 size and in the color of the legs. 



