LIBRARY

DrPTERA 803
which are mostly indigenous to the Old World but some of which have been
widely distributed by commerce.
The horse bot- or nit fly, Gasterophilus intestinalis DeGeer [ = equi (Clark)],
is the common stomach bot of horses, asses, and mules. The adult may attain
a length of 18 mm. and is brownish and somewhat resembles a honeybee but
has a whitish face, dusky wing spots, and often three rows of dusky spots on the
dorsum of the abdomen. These flies are slow of flight and are to be found about
horses upon which ihey attach the minute, elongated, pale-yellow nits or eggs
to the hairs of the forelegs, shoulders, chest, belly, and other parts of the body.
To induce hatching, which occurs in from 10 to 14 days, they are supposed to
require friction and moisture furnished by licking them off the hairs. The small
hairy first-stage larvre are transferred by the tongue and lips to the mouth,
through the tissues of which the larvre penetrate and migrate to the stomach.
They subsequently attach themselves by means of the strong mouth hooks to
the walls of the stomach, from which nourishment is procured. In severe cases
the walls may be entirely lined with crowding bats which, when full grown, are
tough, oval, distinctly segmented, spiny maggots 15-18 mm. long. They remain
in the stomach from summer through the winter and reach maturity in
the spring when they loose their hold, pass to the ground, and pupate in the
soil, emerging as fiies in from 3 to 5 weeks. The species is now nearly cosmopolitan
in distribution.
The nose botfly, Gasterophilus hcemorrhoidalis (Linn.), oviposits on the lips,
and the larvre are first attached in the stomach and subsequently transfer to
the rectum of horses. It is now widely distributed, especially in Europe and
North America. The throat botfly, G. nasalis (Linn.) [= veterinus (Clark)].
oviposits under the head and in the region of the throat, and the larvre are
attached to the pharynx, stomach, and duodenum of horses and mules. The
larvre of G. pecorum (Fab.), a widely distributed Old World species, lay eggs on
the food of the host and on nearby objects and infest the stomach and duodenum
of horses, asses, mules, and rarely rabbits and even man; C. conjugens
Enderlein, G. meruensis (Sjostedt), and G. pavesii (Corti) are attached to the
stomach of rhinoceroses in Africa; and G. sumatrensis Brauer to the stomach
of rhinoceroses in Sumatra. Two common species inhabit the stomach of
elephants: Cobboldia elephantis (Steel) infests the Indian elephant of Asia;
Platycabboldia loxadontis Rodhain infests the feet, and Rhadainomyia chrysidiformis
(Rodhain and Bequaert) the stomach of the elephant of Africa.
(8) Superfamily TACHINOIDEA Enderlein 1936
Family HYPODERMATID1E (Rondani 1856) Townsend 1916 (By/po-dermat/i.dre,
from the Greek inr6, under, + oep)J,a, skin; from the habits of
the larvre living under the skin). German, Dasselfiiegen. Warble Flies,
Heel Flies, Bomb Flies.
Large, robust, hairy or pilose, bee-like flies, similar to the botflies. Facial
grooves broadly separated. Arista bare. Proboscis present or absent. Apical