20 
which I preserved in spirit, leaving the remainder to mature. 
In about a fortnight's time five flies duly emerged, and proved to 
belong to a species of Muscid (nearly allied to the common 
European blow-fly, Callipliora erytlirocephala, Mg.) ? probably 
new to science. This discovery was of great interest to the local 
medical men, who have frequently to deal with boils produced 
by the larvae?, and I therefore propose, as soon as I have 
determined the species to which the " tumba " fly belongs, 
to publish a description of it in the British Medical Journal, 
together with some valuable clinical notes on the effects 
occasioned by the grubs in human beings, which were most 
kindly drawn up for me by Major Rlenkinsop, Royal Army 
Medical Corps. 
Hemim'eru* ^ n ^ ne 7 ear 1858 the Museum received from Sierra Leone 
WaHtf 6 *' some na lf a dozen specimens of a curious cockroach-like insect y 
about half an inch in lengthy which were described by the late 
Francis Walker under the name of Hemimerus talpoides. Some 
20 years later considerable excitement was created among 
entomologists by the statement of M. Saussure that a new 
Order, if not a new Class, would have to be founded for the 
creature on account of certain alleged peculiarities of structure 
in its mouth-parts. This assertion proved to be unfounded, and 
Hemimerus was shown by Hansen to be a true Orthopterous 
insect. 
It is parasitic in habit, occurring in numbers upon the Gambian 
pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus), a large rodent which burrows 
in cassava fields. From a living specimen of this rat (which 
I have since presented to the Zoological Society of London) 
1 obtained more than a dozen specimens of the insect — a useful 
addition to the Museum collection, which had received no fresh 
specimens since the original acquisition in 1858. 
,v,. Among the few Arachnida that I succeeded in obtaining, 
I was fortunate in securing a specimen of Crypt as lemma afzelii, 
an archaic form of much interest. The species, of which only 
two specimens have been previously recorded, is new to the 
Museum, and belongs to a sub-order not previously represented 
in the collection. 
