194 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
turn gives rise to subcutaneous fibroid tumors in man, a condition particularly 
discussed in Chapter XVII. 
Calliphoridae, Auchmeromyia luteola Fabricius, which gives rise to the Congo 
floor maggot, was found in the interior of Liberia in several places, as well as in 
the Belgian Congo at Lulenga. The native Kpwesi name for the maggot of this 
fly is mboro. It lives and hides during the day in crevices or dust, on the earthen 
floors of the native huts, and at night it seeks and attacks sleeping human beings, 
engorging itself with blood. However, it does not inflict a particularly painful 
bite, and is not known to produce any other pathological condition or to transmit 
any disease. 
On the other hand, Cordylobia anthrophophaga gives rise through its larvae to 
a form of African dermal myiasis. This fly is thick-set, compactly built, and of 
an average length of 9.5 millimeters. The head, body, and legs show yellow mark- 
ings. Its eggs are laid on clothing, or on any dust or faecal matter. The larva, 
when it hatches, wanders to human beings or certain animals and penetrates the 
skin by its buccal hooks. When full grown it may attain a size of two centimeters. 
It produces lesions with the appearance of a boil, with a central opening usually 
obscured by a crust through which there can often be seen a small amount of 
black material, the excrement of the larva. This lesion is most commonly located 
on the scrotum, thighs, or buttocks, and the infection is presumed to often occur 
at the latrine. Occasionally in natives the nodule may occur on the scalp or in the 
axilla, or even on the forearms. When the larva escapes or is expressed from the 
small nodule which it forms in the skin, if it does not die it pupates, and later 
the imago is produced. Rats, monkeys, goats, dogs, and cats may be attacked by 
this maggot and may serve as reservoirs for it. 
Although Maughan! refers to the presence of Cordylobia (the tumbu fly) 
and the lesions it produces in man, in Liberia we were not able to obtain any 
evidence of it in the country. It is possible that it may occur on the northwestern 
border along Sierra Leone, since it is so common in the latter country in the dry 
season. Dr. Bouet, however, has not observed it during several years in Liberia, 
and if it occurs at all it is probably exceedingly rare, particularly since the 
high humidity which prevails throughout the year in Liberia is inimical to its 
existence.” 
An insect of considerable importance to the traveller in the interior of Liberia 
is the driver ant, Anomma or Dorylus, which at times may be a terrible pest. 
These insects are not usually found in the larger towns near the coast. Civiliza- 
tion, cleared roads and the noise and bustle of city life may, it has been thought, 
have driven them away. They frequent those parts of Africa where the climate 
is moist and are not found in the dry regions. Winding streams of them often a 
mile or more in length and several inches in width, soldiers and workers, are not 
infrequently encountered along the forest trails in Liberia. Where these ap- 
parently unending streams of ants come from and where they are going is usually 
1 Maughan: ‘‘ Africa as I have Known It” (1929); ‘‘The Republic of Liberia’’ (1920), p. 219. 
2 The aetiology and the pathological histology of the American form of dermal myiasis, caused by 
the larvae of the fly Dermatobia cyaniventris, I have previously discussed in the Medical Report of the 
Hamilton Rice 7th Expedition to the Amazon (1926), p. 36. 
