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The Nasal Bot Fly, Cephenomyia auribarbis Meigen (Diptera, Tachinidae) of the Red Deer, Cervus elaphus L
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2009
Extract
1. Cephenomyia auribarbis Mg., a tachino-oestrid parasite of the red deer (Cervus elaphus L.), is distributed throughout the deer forests of Scotland. The adult is found on the wing during June and July.
2. The larva normally occurs attached to the walls of the nasal passages and pharynx, where it remains for 10 or 11 months. At maturity it drops to the ground and pupates beneath the surface. The adult emerges in 3–4 weeks.
3. In January, 1931, a larva of the early third instar was recovered from a stag shot at Blair Atholl, Perthshire. It was found in fat in the pelvic region and not in the nostril or pharynx as might have been expected.
4. It is suggested that the larva may have been swallowed by the host and bored its way through the wall of the gut into the peritoneal cavity, whence it had wandered to the pelvic region; or else that a first-stage larva had been accidentally deposited by a female on the hide and had bored through the body wall to the peritoneal cavity.
5. The adult female and the early third-stage larva are described and illustrated.
6. A comparison is made between the cephalo-pharyngeal apparatus of Cephenomyia auribarbis, Cephalomyia ovis, and Gastrophilus intestinalis. It is noted that the basilar sclerite of the first two species is provided with an accessory lateral appendage on each side. A greater surface is thus furnished for the attachment of the large depressor muscles of the buccal hooks. The larva thus securely holds its ground in the nasal cavities and pharynx, where the risks of summary ejection are always present. In G. intestinalis the accessory appendage is absent. The chances of the larva of this species losing its hold on the gastric mucous membrane of the host are very slight.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1932
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