Illustrations of British blood-sucking flies / with notes by Ernest Edward Austen.

  • British Museum (Natural History). Department of Entomology
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Illustrations of British blood-sucking flies / with notes by Ernest Edward Austen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    71/148 (page 67)
    Genus MELOPHAGUS, Latreille. Melophagus ovinus, Linn. The Sheep Tick, Sheep Louse, or Keel. Plate 34, Fig. 2. A higher degree of adaptation to a parasitic existence is exhibited by this species than by any of the foregoing members of the Family to which it belongs, since the wings are always entirely wanting in both sexes. This peculiarity, coupled with the general strangeness of its appearance, which presents little resemblance to an ordinary fly, and the fact that it passes its whole life-cycle in the wool of the sheep, has gained for the insect two of the popular names mentioned above. The late Miss Ormerod (' Report of the Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Farm Pests, during the year 1895 ' (London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd., 1896), p. 120) states that when seen in the wool Sheep Ticks greatly resemble small spiders, though, of course, the presence of only three pairs of legs is- sufficient to show that the creatures must be insects. The Sheep Tick does not possess the activity of the Forest Fly, but moves quite slowly and quietly through the wool of the host, to which, when not in excessive numbers, it may cause little annoyance. Dr. Parry, however (quoted by Youatt in 'The Mountain Shepherd's Manual' (1862), p. 35), says that Alclopliagus ovinus is extremely injurious to sheep, by making the animal bite and rub itself, so as not only to hurt the fleece, but to break the skin, in consequence of which the fly [Lucilia sericata, Mg.] is apt to fix on the wool near the wounded spot and there deposit its eggs. The Sheep Ticks in the Museum collection were taken during May and Tune, i.e., at shearing-time, but Curtis believes that the insect is to