VETERINARY ENTOMOLOGY FOR INDIA                  199

Scrophulariaceæ and Labiatæ by thursting their proboscis into them, poising them-
selves in the air during the process ". Nothing is known concerning the young
stages of C. longirostris, but in one instance about 150 eggs were dissected out from
a gravid female at Muktesar and each egg measured about a millimetre in length.
Observations made at Kasauli [Mitter, 1917-18] and Muktesar would appear to
indicate that the females are capable of sucking blood, which they do while hover-
ing by making repeated darts at the host, and in certain instances the actual
presence of blood has been detected in the midgut of dissected flies. It may be
mentioned that the long proboscis of the fly which meets the eye of the casual
observer is merely the labium, which never functions in the act of biting, the actual
stylets being much shorter and more or less hidden away in the labium. This latter
organ, however, is probably well-adapted for scooping out sugary fluids (e.g.,
nectar of flowers), being paired and honey-combed at the tip, in the fashion of a
double spoon. C. laprobanes, however, sucks blood only when settled on its host.

    The species of Tabanids which the field veterinary worker is most likely to en-
counter are comprised under the genera Haematopota, Chrysops and Tabanus, the
Indian species included in those genera numbering approximately 31, 11 and 75 re-
spectively. Senior-White [1927] has given keys for the identification of these species,
but the Veterinary worker in India is not likely to require more than a generic
reference so that it seems unnecessary to reproduce these keys here.

                                  (To be continued).