A TECHNIQUE FOR SHIPPING 
HIPPOBOSCID PUPARIA (DIPTERA) 1 
By I. Barry Tarshis 
812 Montclaire Ave., Frederick, Maryland 
Special techniques have been developed for shipping 
dipterous insects. Geigy (1948) devised and used a cold 
temperature cabinet which was kept at 8.0° C. (46.8° F.) 
for shipping adult tsetse flies of the species Glossina 
palpalis from Tropical Africa (Congo) to Basle, Switzer- 
land, via air express. Brennan and Mail (1954) success- 
fully shipped adult mosquitoes of the species Culex tarsalis 
in a cold temperature cabinet that employed Sno-Gel Re- 
freezants (Model R10-8) for temperature control. Adult 
hippoboscid flies of the species Pseudolynchia canariensis 
were successfully shipped via air express in cardboard 
mailing tubes for a distance of several hundred miles by 
the writer (Tarshis, 1953). (This method was only suc- 
cessful when transit took but a day to a day and a half 
and the temperature was moderate.) The author (Tarshis, 
1954) also transported live hippoboscid flies ( Stilbometopa 
impressa and Lynchia hirsuta) in a cold temperature 
cabinet, maintained at around 7.0° C. (44.6° F.), distances 
of 70 to 300 miles in an automobile. 
During studies now being conducted by the author on 
the biology of Egyptian hippoboscids, an attempt was 
made to again ship live adult flies in mailing tubes, but 
the flies always arrived dead. The great distance and 
consequent time involved in shipping flies from Egypt 
to Maryland readily explains this lack of success. No 
attempt was made to ship the flies in refrigerated con- 
1 The author wishes to express sincere appreciation to Lt. Com. Harry 
Hoogstraal, Head, Zoology Dept., NAMRU — 3, Cairo, Egypt for obtain- 
ing and sending the puparia and for his continuing help and interest 
in this work. 
109 
