I. B. Tarshis.
A Technique for Shipping Hippoboscid Puparia (Diptera).
Psyche 63(3):109-111, 1956.

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A TECHNIQUE FOR SHIPPING
HIPPOBOSCID PUPARIA (DIPTERA)
BY I. BARRY TARSHIS
812 Montclaire Ave., Frederick, Maryland Special techniques have been developed for shipping dipterous insects. Geigy (1948) devised and used a cold temperature cabinet which was kept at 8.0' C. (46.8' F.) for shipping adult tsetse flies of the species Glossha palpalis from Tropical Africa (Congo) to Basle, Switzer- land, via air express. Brennan and Mail (1954) success- fully shipped adult mosquitoes of the species Cvlex tarsalis in a cold temperature cabinet that employed Sno-Gel Re- freezants (Model RIO-8) for temperature control. Adult hippoboscid flies of the species Pseudolynchia canariensis were successfully shipped via air express in cardboard mailing tubes for a distance of several hundred miles by the writer (Tarshis, 1953). (This method was only suc- cessful when transit took but a day to a day and a half and the temperature was moderate.) The author (Tarshis, 1954) also transported live hippoboscid flies (Stilbometopa mressa and Lynchia hirsuta) in a cold temperature cabinet, maintained at around 7.0' C. (44.6' F.), distances of 70 to 300 miles in an automobile.
During studies now being conducted by the author on the biology of Egyptian hippoboscids, an attempt was made to again ship live adult flies in mailing tubes, but the flies always arrived dead. The great distance and consequent time involved in shipping flies from Egypt to ~ar~land readily explains this lack of success. No attempt was made to ship the flies in refrigerated con- ' The author wishes to express sincere appreciation to Lt. Corn. Harry Hoogstraal, Head, Zoology Dept., NAMRU-3, Cairo, Egypt for obtain- ing and sending the puparia and for Ins continuing help and interest in this work.




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110 Psyche
[September
tainers, as was accomplished in the above described works, since the cost of such containers and their shipment would be prohibitive; it is also doubtful if any commonly avail- able refrigerants would maintain the necessary low tem- perature over such a prolonged period (10 to 15 days). The problem of how to ship live adult hippoboscid flies such a long distance was obviated when experiments showed that puparia of the flies could be shipped this distance economically, simply and most successfully via air express.
The puparia were packed in the following manner for shipment. Several puparia were loosely wrapped in a piex of cleansing tissue and then the tissue-wrapped puparia were put into a shell vial which had a small piece of cotton in the bottom. The number of puparia in a vial would vary with the size of the puparia and the vial. For these shipments a maximum of five puparia of Hip- pobosca longipennis and three puparia of H. equina were placed in each 15 x 40 mm. vial. The puparia could also be put one or two at a time unwrapped into the vials with cotton under and over each succeeding one or two puparia. The vial was plugged with cotton or capped with a plastic screw-on cap. Five or six vials were then placed into a cardboard mailing tube padded all around the inside and bottom with cotton to prevent the vials from breaking and the puparia from being severely jarred. Upon arrival in Frederick, Maryland, the puparia were removed from the vials and placed into individual rear- ing vials (25 x 55 mm.) covered with 10-mesh nylon bcbbinette. The vials containing the puparia were then placed into an incubator set at 26.5' C. (79.7' F.). Adult
flies of H. longipennis emerged from puparia in from 26 to 31 days (from the date of collection in Egypt to date of emergence in Maryland). Adult flies of H. equina emerged in 29 days under the same conditions. This ship- ping method could be employed for puparia of all viviparous flies.




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Tarshis - Hippo boscids
GEIGY, R.
1948. Elevage de Glossina palpalis. Acta Tropica, 5 :201-218. BRENNAN, J. M., AND MAIL, G. A.
1954. A technic for shipping live mosquitoes with particular reference to Culex tarsalis. Science, 119 (3092) :443-444. TARSHIS, I. B.
1953. The transmission of Haemoproteus lophortyx O'Roke of the valley California quail by hippoboscid flies of the species stilbome- topa impressa (Bigot) and Lynchia hirsuta Ferris and the elucida- tion of the biology of these ectoparasites. Manuscript of Ph.D. Thesis, Deposited in Library, University of California, Berkeley, California.
TARSHIS, I. B.
1954. Transporting live hippoboscids (Diptera) . Psyche, 61 (2) :58-62.



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112 Psyche [September
TWO CASES OF INTESTINAL MYIASIS IN MAN PRODUCED BY HERMETIA (DIPTERA : STRATIOMYIIDAE) . -In the late sum- mer of 1955 a man living in Tucson brought in a larval Hermetia, probably in its final instar, that had been passed with the stools. He reported that he had had a series of symptoms that might be traced to the myiasis, beginning with gastric upset several months before, passing through diarrhea and ending in uneasiness in the lower tract. The specimen was alive when he brought it in but, unfortu- nately, it escaped. It agreed well with Hermetia larvae in our collections but a specific name could not be assigned. This year, October 15, 1956, another man brought in a larva passed with the stools and in this case reported that he had noticed no symptoms at all. The larva was active at first but soon became quiescent and had obviously pupated. A female adult of Hermetia illucens (L.) emerged on the morning of October 23. Since both of these cases occurred within the area of metropolitan Tucson, in an area of about 200,000 population, myiasis by this fly may be more common than has been reported. Both cases were in residents in semirural areas, the man who played host for the 1955 specimen not having been outside the area for at least six months before the larva was re- covered. The 1956 infestation may have originated some- where else, since the man infested had returned from an extended trip in Mexico the month before. - FLOYD G. WERNER, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.



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