974 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
of this parasite in Sierra Leone, its absence in Liberia is noteworthy. In my 
opinion it is entirely due to the high humidity which prevails practically through- 
out the year. 
In several medical textbooks the common African cutaneous myiasis has 
been wrongly credited to the larva of Bengalia depressa (Walker). Although 
Austen and others have corrected this error, even recent books are repeating it.’ 
It is perhaps too much to hope that it will ever disappear from the textbooks; 
yet it must be emphasized again that all known South African cases of cutaneous 
myiasis in man, due to calliphorine larvae, are caused by Cordylobia anthropo- 
phaga. The larva and life-history of Bengalia depressa are as yet totally unknown, 
but there is not a particle of evidence to show that this insect ever acts as a 
subcutaneous parasite of mammals. 
Stasisia rodhaini (Gedoelst) 
Cordylobia rodhaini Gedoelst, 1910, Arch. de Parasitologie, XIII, p. 538, figs. 1-4 ( @ and larva; 
Leopoldville, Belgian Congo). Gamble, 1914, Jl. Trop. Med. Hyg., XVII, p. 149. Loveridge, 
1923, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 703. 
Stasisia rodhaini Sureouf, 1914, Rev. Zool. Afric., III, 3, p. 476 (o @). Rodhain and Bequaert, 
1916, Bull. Scientif. France et Belgique, XLIX, 3, p. 265, figs. 7-13, Pl. XIX, fig.1 ( 9 #7, larva). 
‘“‘Larve de Lund” Gedoelst, 1905, Arch. de Parasitologie, LX, p. 575, figs. 1-3 (Belgian Congo). 
FRENCH ConaGo. — Oguma, Gaboon, two larvae from the skin near the ear 
of a squirrel, Heliosccurus punctatus Temminck (C. R. Aschemeyer). Brazza- 
ville (Capt. Modest. — Paris Museum). 
Breiaian Conao. — Bolobo, one larva from the skin of a duiker antelope, 
Cephalophus aequatorialis Matschie (H. Schouteden). Barumbu, several larvae 
from the same species of duiker, Cephalophus aequatorialis Matschie (J. Ghes- 
quiére). Bikoro, four larvae from the skin of amonkey, Lasiopyga (Cercopithecus) 
wolfi (Meyer) (H. Schouteden. — Congo Museum). 
TANGANYIKA TERRITORY. — Bagilo, Uluguru Mountains, three larvae under 
the skin of a forest rat, Lophuromys aquilus aquilus True (Arthur Loveridge). 
S. rodhaini is the usual agent of cutaneous myiasis in the humid rain forest 
of equatorial Africa, where it replaces Cordylobia anthropophaga Grinberg of 
the savanna regions. It is especially common in the forest of the French and 
Belgian Congo, where its normal hosts are the small duiker antelopes and cer- 
tain rodents (Cricetomys gambianus Waterhouse); exceptionally it attacks man, 
but it is doubtful whether the larvae ever become full-grown in that host. Its 
occurrence in the rain forest of the Uluguru Mountains, in East Africa, is of 
unusual interest in view of the presence there of other types of West African 
1 The error is found, for instance, in G. 8. Graham-Smith, 1913, ‘Flies in relation to disease. Non- 
bloodsucking flies,’ p. 223; Fantham, Stephens and Theobald, 1916, ‘The animal parasites of man,’ 
p. 591; and W. D. Pierce, 1921, ‘Sanitary entomology,’ p. 190 (in the chapter on myiasis, by F. C. 
Bishopp). The mistake seems to have originated with Péringuey (1893, Trans. South African Phil. 
Soe., VIII, 1, p. 23); and, although this entomologist corrected it later, it was repeated by C. Fuller 
(1902, Natal Agric. Jl., IV, pp. 656-658) and R. M. Townsend (1903, Proc. Rhodesia Scient. Assoc. 
IV, 1, pp. 7-8). An error of a different kind, but tending to perpetuate the same confusion, is made by 
C. Fox (1925, ‘Insects and disease of man,’ p. 106), who places the two species, anthropophaga and rod- 
haini, in the genus Bengalia, with which they have nothing much in common, beyond subfamily and 
tribal characters. : 
