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Psyche 4:112-113, 1883.

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tracheal btanchiae, showing that the
branches of the tracheae end caecally.
In this case the branches are so few that their terminations can be easily made
out.
The importance of this anatomical
item depends on its bearing on the
functions of the whole tracheal system.
The action of the tracheae is tidal
rather than by peripheral capillary
circulation. Here also the endings of
the ramifications are found to harmon-
ize with their internal terminations
along the nervous and digestive tracts,
and in other parts of the tissues which
they supply. We never find a double
system of tracheae with capillary rami-
fications interposed for the transmission of air from one system to the other. It
is not easy, in the living insect, to
determine the ebb and flow directly ;
as the movements occur suddenly, have
their speed multiplied by the degree of
microscopic amplification ; and hence
we are able only to see the rhythmical
peristaltic action, and are left to guess at its cause. We find, however, the
muscular contractions and expansions
of other parts of the body synchroniz-
ing with the pulsation's in the gills, and thus explaining how the flux and reflux, rather than a mere circulation of the
air, is the cause of its renewal.
Princeton, N. J., rz Dec. 1883.
THE SCREW-WORM FLY, CO/lå´YPSO/~~TI MACELLARIA. BY SAMUEL WENDELL WILLISTON, NEW HAVEN, CONN. IN connection with Professor Snow's
article on this fly it seems worth while to give a brief synopsis of papers pub-
lished in the past few years by the able dipterologist of South America, Dr. E.
L. Ai~ibhlzaga, of B~ienosi Aires. From
his studies he has ascertained no less than twenty-six different specific names that this fly had received ! It is possible
that some of these names would apply to
distinct species were their types exam-
ined, but it is a thankless task to encleav- or to make order out of the chaos in
which Walker, Macquart, and obi-
iieau-Desvoidy have involved the subject, and the result of Arrib4lzaga's thoro~igh studies can with propriety be adopted.
Psyche, Mar.-Apr. 1883, v. 4, p. 27-30.
To these results, however, Mr. J. Bigot, of Paris, has recently taken exception,
in a note on Professor Snow's paper.
This author's penchant for making syn-
onyms himself may perhaps have
something to do with his wishing to
preserve species founded on inade-
quate grounds. His argument that '51
me semble fort hasai-cleux d'avancer
yn'un sede et inhne e.y%?ce se
retro~~ve, en permanence, depuis les
confins de la Patagonie jusqu'au deld
deb provinces centrales de YAinkriq~ie
du Nord, vivant inditi6remment sous
les zones torrides, temp6i4es et m6me
froides?" is of little value, when the
2 Bull. soc. entom. France, 12 Sept. 1883, no. 17, p. 154-15.5.




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November-December 1883.1 PSYCHE. 113
author himself should know that other
American flies do have a similar range
of habitat, to say nothing of the nearly allied Musca domestics.
The specimens which Professor Snow
sent me for examination, although some-
what injured, certainly seem to me to
be Coqhomyia maceZZa~*ia (Fab.) E.
Lch. A. The species may, with toler-
able certainty, be recognized by its hav- ing a bright metallic green or coppery
color on the abdomen and thorax, the
latter above with three black stripes ;
the bristle of the antennae feathered to the tip, and the head, except the eyes,
chiefly yellow. In size it varies from
seven to ten millimetres.
However, these systematic details will
be of less interest than the following,
which I translate from the Spanish of
Arrib41zaga8 :
"During the pleasant days of spring
or the hotter ones of summer, these flies may be seen covering in great numbers,
now umbelliferous flowers, now all sorts of filth ; or, resting, there glistens in the sunlight the iridescent surface of their half-opened wings, and the blue, the
green, the violet, the copper and the
gold of their metallic colored bodies."
'Our fly deposits its eggs, commonly
called 'å´queresa, in dead bodies, in
manure, in fresh meat reserved for food, and soon there appear immense num-
bers of voracious larvae that rapidly
consume the objects in which has begun
their active life. Not content with these habits, common to all the species of
--- --
3 Anales de la soc. cientifica argentina, v. 10, p. 80-84. the group to which it pertains, it de-
posits the germs of its posterity in the wounds of men and of animals, at the
entrance of openings of the human face,
and, in its anxiety for propagation, will deposit them in the wool of sheep."
"Azara was, I believe, the first ob-
server who noted cases of human my-
iasis in South America. Coquerel, many
years later, called the attention of phy- sicians and naturalists to the frequent
and fatal accidents which this evil pro- duces among the exiles of Cayenne :
according to this author, Dr. Chapuis,
physician-in-chief of the French marine, attended one case in which the larvae
of C. macellaria had penetrated to the
frontal sinuses, causing the death of the patient ; also one very unclean person
attacked in the nasal fossae and the
pharynx, who succumbed after he had
ejected one hundred and twenty larvae.
There were, as M. St. Pair observed,
in the same country, six similar cases,
of which three terminated in the death
of the patients after cruel sufferings ; in two the nose was destroyed, and in the
last there was a deformation of the ol-
factory organ. I11 another case observ-
ed by M. St. Pair there were removed,
by means of injections, more than
three hundred larvae, but he was
not able to obtain them all, and the re- mainder soon penetrated the ball of the
eye, destroying the lower eyelid in
consequence of gangrene, invaded the
mouth, corroded the gums and laid bare
the inferior maxillary ; the victim died seventeen days after his entrance into
the hospital."




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114 PSYCHE. [Xovember-December 1883.
After giving records of numerous
other cases he further adds :
"To Dr. Lesbini, of Cbrdoba, are due
the better observations upon cases of
myiasis produced by C. nzacellaf*ia.
The first case presented itself in an old foreigner who had an ulcer in his leg
filled with these larvae ; the second case occurred in C6rdoba, in a boy of seven
years, attacked in the left ear ; the third and last case was in a girl of sixteen
years, also of C6rdoba. affected in the
nasal fossae by the presence of two hun- dred and fifty larvae : all these patients were saved."
'It is probable that, attracted by the
fetid odor of unclean individuals, these flies hover over the mouth or the nose,
and thus deposit their eggs ; some affirm that they at times enter the passages for this purpose."
"The area of distribution of Coe-
somyia macellaria is very great, and
will be, I believe, yet greater with time, since their habits facilitate their trans- portation by man from one region to
another ; hitherto they have been ob-
served in the following countries : Is-
lands of America (Musca macellaria
F.) , N. America ( Chrysomyia tibialis,
C. Phe?minicri, C. caerulescens, C.
decora C. $aei R.-Dew.), Mexico
(.L^cilia ho~~zi?zivorax'), Cuba, Colom- bia, Venezuela, Cayenne, Brazil. Peru,
Chili, Uruguay, Argentine Republic
and New Holland ."
INFLUENCE OF COLOR ON INSECTS.-
The following extract from the recently
published second part of vol. I of
"Timehri," the Journal of the Royal
agricultural and commercial society
of British Guiana, so ably edited by
Mr. E. I?. iin Th~~rn, may be of interest to our readers. It occurs in an account
of a visit to Mount Russell in Guiana,
by the editor (p. 223) :-
6bTl~at afternoon the Indians of the
place, seeing our interest in catching
butterflies, exhibited various clever
ways of entrapping these insects. To
catch those of yellow hue, they picked
and laid 011 the ground the flowers of a yellow Bignonia (B. chicka) ; and
this proved a most successful plan.
Equally successful were they when they
laid decaying banana-skins on the
ground to attract the large blue
Mo~j6hos; but an attempt to attract
certain red species by displaying the
ripe red fruit of the faroah plant ( Bixa orellana) was not successful. Then,
these methods of enticing the insects
were completed by inverting a round
quake (a wide-mouthed basket of very
open wicker-work) over the bait, taking
care to raise the quake so that its lower edge was some inches from the ground.
The butterflies, attracted by the flowers, made their way under the raised edge
of the quake, and when the Indians ap-
proached flew, not out under the edge
of the quake, but upward into the top,
where they were captured."-E. C. R.,
in Entomologist's mo. mag., June
1883, v. 20, p. 15-16.




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