ON INDIAN PARASITIC FLIES. 
959 
The greatest European authority on this family is Dr. Paul Speiser, 
a Prussian doctor of medicine and an entomologist, whose writings and 
researches during the last twenty years have added greatly to our 
knowledge.* The family has a world- wide distribution and some- 
where about a hundred species have been discovered and described. 
Speiser has recognised five sub-families ; but as one of these is con- 
fined to Madagascar where lemurs are their hosts it need not 
trouble us further. There occur in India representatives of the four 
other sub-families : Hifpoboscince, Lipopteninw, Olfersiince, Ornitho- 
myiince. Until the family received attention from Speiser it had 
been much neglected. The Indian species are hardly known and the 
list in the late F. M. Van der VVulp’s “ Catalogue of the Describ- 
ed Diptera from South Asia” (1896) might be greathy added to. 
For instance, the British Museum collection contains specimens of 
the horse parasite Hippobosca equina L., a male from Upper Burmah 
and a female from Bengal ; also the camel parasite H. camelina, 
Leach, a single female from South Afghanistan. Even H. macidata, 
Leach, one of the commonest Indian species is omitted from Van 
der Wulp’s Catalogue. The British Museum has a good series from 
various localities in India and Ceylon, t 
The Hippoboscids are flat n,nd leathery looking flies with a short 
proboscis designed for blood-sucking and capable of protrusion when 
in use, but protected by the palpi when the insect is crawling among 
hair or feathers. The tip is furnished with sharp chitinous teeth to 
pierce the skin of the host. They are all blood-suckers and all para- 
sites which spend more or less of their lives on the bodies of their 
hosts. The parasitism is reflected in the development of strong 
legs with powerful claws and small inconspicuous antennae. The 
associated blood-sucking habit has led to the usual Dipterous life- 
history becoming reversed. In the present gronp the blood-sucking 
habit enables the adult female to supply nourishment of the richest 
description to carry on the life of the larva within her own body 
and the larva is born when about to pupate. The puparium looks 
like a brown shiny seed with a dark cap at one end. When first 
laid it is soft and white like a larva, which in fact it is. The mahogany 
colour and hard outer skin are assumed in a few days. These puparia 
may be found in dry places, on shelves or stone floors in cattle-sheds 
and stables. AVhere the hosts have nests, the larvae are dropped in 
•Dr. Speiser’s chief papers are the following which should be referred to by any- 
one who knows German. They contain many suggestive remarks on parasitic Dip- 
tera : (1902) “Studienuber Diptera pupipara.” Zeits. fiir syst. Hymenojderologi- 
und Dipterologie Vol. II. p. 145. (1905) “ Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Hippobos- 
ciden.” Idem Vol. V. p. 347. (1908) “Die Geographische Verbreitung der Dip- 
tera pupipari und thro Phylogenie.” Zeits. fiir wiss. Insektenbiologie. Vol. IV 
pp. 241, .301, 420, 437. 
f Notes on Hippoboscidae in the British Museum. By E. E. Austen, Ann. and 
Mag. of Nat. Hist. 7th Series, 1903. Vol. XII. p. 255. 
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