ON THE PARASITIC FLY ON THE SILKWORMS IN CHINA 



By C SASAKI. 



Professor in the Coll. of Agriculture, Imp. Univ., Tokyo. 



It is known, that there are several species of flies which are parasitic to silk- 

 worms ; and their species seem to differ according to the different countries where 

 the silkworms are cultivated. Thus the larvse of flies found parasitic to silkworms 

 in Italy are two, of which one is identified hy Mr. A. Marint with Senornetopia 

 pumicata Meig. while the other by Mr. Ch. Brongnjart with Doria meditabunla. 1 

 The parasitic larva of fly found in the silkworms at Bengal is designated by the name 

 Oestrus Burnbycia, 2 while that which causes great injuries to our Japanese silkworms 

 is named by Prof. Camillo Rondami 3 Ugimya sericariœ, and has been studied by 

 myself * in 1886. 



Several Chinese writings tell us, that the Chinese silkworms are more or less 

 killed every year by parasitic larvœ of a fly ; but we could not get the specimens 

 from that country until now. Fortunately in January of this year, I procured some 

 specimens of the same insect from my friend Dr. IwAjiro Hovda who has traveled 

 the eastern coast of China at the end of the last year. 



The Chinese parasitic fly of the silkworms differs entirely from the above men- 

 tioned species, but seems to be identical with the Tacitino, rustica L (Syns. Museo, 

 nigricans Fabr., Musco larvarium minor De Geer.) described by J. W. Meigen. 5 



In the following lines, I will describe both sexes of the fly as well as its maggot, 

 and give a short account of the manner in which the latter gets into silkworms 

 in China. 



Female fly (fig. 1, a). 



1 Bulletin des Soif s et des Soieries, No. 912 



2 E Pariset— Les Industries de la Soie.P 37. 



3 Prof. C Rondani — L'Uji ; estratto dal Bolletino del Comizio Agrario, del Mese di Aprile, 1870. 



4 Journal of Science Coll., Imperial University, Japan, 1886. 



6 System. Beschreib d. bekannt, europäisch. Zweifl. Insekten. Th. IV. 1824. 



