25 
The pernicious activities of the South American black-flies 
were thus described in 1880 by Prof. W. S. Barnard (American 
Entomologist, Vol. 3, p. 191): “In tropical America they are 
a dreadful scourge, where for several nights I was kept awake by 
them when trying to sleep in the forests near the rivers, sometimes 
finding myself and my shirt thickly specked with blood, from their 
punctures. These minute sand-flies of the Amazon have hard 
bodies, and the swarm seeks entrance beneath one’s garments, 
from which they can not be kept out. There they were especially 
active at night, together with the mosquitoes.’’ 
Cases of reported fatal attacks upon man are given by Dr. 
C. V. Riley in a general article upon the subject published in 1886,* 
and by F. M. Webster in a paper published in 1904^ “Sufficient 
facts are on record,” Dr. Riley says, “to show that if the gnats 
attack a person suddenly in large swarms and find him unprepared 
or far away from any shelter, they may cause death. * * * 
* In 1884 several persons were killed by buffalo-gnats. Mr. 
H. A. Winter, from near Helena, Ark., while on a hunting trip, 
was attacked by them one and a half miles from home, while 
passing some low ground. Running towards a house, he was seen 
to fall dead. All exposed parts of his body had turned black. 
Another man was killed near Wynne Station, Ark., on the Iron 
Mountain Railroad.” 
A more specific account of a fatal attack is given by Mr. A. E. 
Buck,$ who writes that a nephew of his was left upon an island 
of the Hatchie River, in western Tennessee, by a fishing party 
which took away the only boat. As he could not swim and had 
no matches with which to make a smudge, he remained all day at 
the mercy of the gnats. Although rescued towards evening, he 
died that night, with his hands, arms, face, and neck very much 
swollen. “There is no doubt,” says Mr. Buck, “that the buffalo- 
gnats killed him.” Webster says that during the period from 
1881 to 1884 “several people were killed in Louisiana and Arkan¬ 
sas by being bitten by these gnats, as I was able to prove by the 
statements of physicians who attended the sufferers. * * * 
* I shall never forget,” he adds, “the sensation [of the bite] 
as that of having the skin rudely punctured as if by a blunt, hot, 
pin or awl, leaving behind a dull aching pain.”§ 
The local effect on man is the raising of an itching, burning 
lump or welt, which lasts for hours, or sometimes even for days. 
^Report U. S. Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1886, p. 501. 
tProceedings 25th Ann. Meeting Soc. Promotion Agr. Sci., pp. 53-72. 
t Insect Life, Vol. I (1S88), pp. 60 and 61. 
§Proceedings 25th Ann. Meeting Soc. Promotion Agr. Sci., pp. 59 and 61. 
