1930 ] 
Notes on Hippoboscidx 
319 
to endless discussions. The most sensible view appears 
to be that expressed by C. Keller (1902), who admits two 
ancestors. The usual, larger type of cattle, now prevalent 
in Europe and America, was derived most likely from a 
wild species of Central Europe, the urus or “Ur,” Bos 
primigenius Bojanus, which survived in the feral state 
until the beginning of the seventeenth century of our era. 
The more stubby, zebu type, usually kept in Eastern Africa, 
Southern Asia and Malaysia, had probably as ancestor 
the banteng, Bos sondaicus Schlegel and Muller, of the 
Oriental Region, still living in the wild state in some of 
the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The distribution 
of H. maculata corresponds surprisingly well with that of 
the zebu type of domestic cattle, so that one may suppose 
that the insect was originally an ectoparasite of the wild 
banteng. It would be of great interest to discover the fly 
on Bos sondaicus in the wild state. 
It must be mentioned that no hippoboscid flies have ever 
been found on the water buffalo of Southern Asia nor on 
any of the African wild buffaloes. These animals are 
only remotely related to the domestic races of cattle. 
Affinities. — H. maculata, H. rufipes and H. hirsuta 
form a group of closely allied species, which differ from 
all the other members of the genus in having a row of 
setse on the base of the third longitudinal vein and only 
one well-developed pulvillus. They also agree in most other 
peculiarities, except those mentioned in the key. The dif- 
ferences which separate them may appear slight, yet they 
are undoubtedly of specific value. I suspect that, before 
man contributed to extend their geographic and host range, 
every one of these species was confined to a rather small 
territory and to one or a few related hosts. H. maculata 
was probably then a parasite of wild cattle in the Oriental 
Region. H. rufipes lived on the wild equines of South 
Africa. H. hirsuta was restricted to the large antelopes of 
tropical Africa, as it is even nowadays. 
H. maculata is rather variable in color, so that it has 
been fair game to the “splitters,” as may be seen from the 
above list of synonyms. I hardly believe that any of these 
