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Show 1900.] INSECTS AND ARACHNIDS PROM SOMALILAND. 9 nearly the same region as that in which Mr. Peel's specimens were found. Capt. Swayne also captured a single specimen of another species of Pangonia (too much damaged for determination), and three examples of a small Tabanid, somewhat resembling a Hcemato-pota in form, but with clear wings ; as the latter specimens are headless, it is impossible to determine them more precisely. The following extract from a letter from Capt. Swayne, sent along with the flies to Dr. P. L. Sclater, is interesting as snowing the appareut effect of the bites of these flies upon domestic animals. It is possible, however, that the real offender in these cases is either Glossina longipennis, Corti (the Somaliland Tsetse-fly), or else a species of Stomo.vys, which abouuds all over E. Africa. The latter species was found by Dr. J. W . Gregory to kill his camels on the Tana Biver, and was discovered by Capt. A. G. Haslam, A.V.D., to carry the Trypanosoma of Tsetse-fly disease. Since Stomoxys is a flv of small size, while Glossina longipennis is in shape not unlike a Hcematopota, the true culprits may escape notice, the effects of their bites being attributed to the Tabanidae. In the extract from Capt. Sw?ayne's letter the Pangonia are called " Doog," and the small Tabanid " Balaad." Capt. Swayne writes as follows :- " I send you three specimens of ' Doog' (a large fly) and three specimens of ' Balaad' (a small fly) I was very much pestered by ' Doog' on my way through Ojaden to the Webbe Shabeyli in Somaliland. They swarmed on my camels, constantly drawing blood. The other fly, ' Balaad,' which looks not unlike the common house-fly, is far the worst fly on the Webbe ; a valuable camel, on which I caught three or four, two months ago, is now dying, and the Somalis say that this is due to the bites of ' Balaad.' If there are many of them they kill horses and camels, and the Somalis will not have their live-stock grazing where ' Doog ' and ' Balaad' are found." Fam. ASILIDA Subfam. LAPHRINJE. LAMYRA Loew. LAMYRA VORAX Loew. Lamyra vorax, Loew, Ofvers. af K . Vet.-Akad. Forhandl. 1857, 355. 47 ; id. Dipt.-Fauna Siidafrika's, 114 [I860]. A single $ , West Somaliland, between April 16 and Aug. 7, 1895. I refer Mr. Peel's specimen to this species with some hesitation. Its length is 15 German lines, instead of 11 or 12; the pollinose spots on the second and third abdominal segments are practically invisible; and there are differences in the length and coloration of the hair on the ventral surface of the abdomen. Tbe specimen, however, is in poor condition, and even should it eventually prove to belong to a new sp cies, it is too much damaged to be selected as a type. |