2l8 
The Irish Naturalist. 
October, 
in an incubator). The eggs are laid by the female Hypo- 
derma on the legs, and more rarely on the flanks ; we have 
never seen a fly strike at a beast's back — the region popularly 
supposed to be the place of egg-laying. The eggs of Hypo- 
derma hovis are laid singly attached to a hair near its base ; 
those of H. lineatuni are laid in rows of seven or more on the 
hair about half-way up. This difference in the habit of 
the tw^o species has been recently pointed out by Glaser/ 
a,nd w^e can confirm his observations, made in Germany, on 
this point ; also that the eggs are hatched while attached 
to the hairs, for empty shells, split at the distal end, where 
the larvae have emerged, have been several times seen by 
us. 
Unfortunately the tiny maggots obtained in the summer 
of 1913 only survived for a few hours, and we had no oppor- 
tunity of studying their behaviour. The newly-hatched 
maggot is less than i mm. in length, with sharp, powerful 
mouth-hooks and a strong, spiny armature on the body- 
segments. In the paper just mentioned we remarked that 
this well-armed though tiny larva " could, perhaps, bore as 
readily through the skin as through the mucous coat of the 
gullet, and we may eventually find the former to be the 
usual mode of entrance." During the summer of this year 
we have obtained positive evidence that the newly -hatched 
maggot does bore through the skin of cattle, and with the 
kind permission of the Department, we think it advisable 
to publish our observations on this fact of the life -history — 
as to which clear knowledge has for so long been wanting — 
without delay. 
' Besides the experiments at Ballyhaise, a number of 
observations on warble -flies and maggots have been carried 
on at the Athenry Agricultural Station by our colleague, Mr. 
James Duncan, B.Sc, who has received much valuable help 
from Mr. R. Y. Smith, the farm manager, and Mr. Lang, the 
cattle -herd. At Athenry Hypoderma lincatum appears to 
be the common species, whereas at Ballyhaise H. hovis is 
1 Mitt, dcs Ausschiisses zur Bekampfung des Dasselplage, Beriin. No. 3 
4. 5, 1912-13. 
