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The transmission of pathogenic Micro-Organisms by Flies in Saint Lucia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Lucius Nicholls
Lucius Nicholls
Affiliation:
(Cantab.).
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Extract

The mechanical conveyance of germs by flies and other insects is of importance not only to the sanitary officer, but to the agriculturist and even to the merchant, for the more the matter is enquired into, the more numerous become the cases in which the origin of fermentation or disease in plants and animals can be traced primarily to this agency. Whatever may be the significance of this question in temperate climates, it is obviously of far greater importance in the tropics, where insects are present in greater profusion throughout all seasons of the year. The subject certainly merits more attention than has yet been bestowed upon it.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1912 , pp. 81 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1912

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References

* [Mr. A. Bacot has recently proved (cf. Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1911, p. 497Google Scholar) that in the case of Musca domestica, if the larva be infected with Bacillus pyocyaneus, the infection may be carried right through to the newly emerged imago, positive results having been obtained by him in every instance. In view of this, it seems probable that Dr. Nicholls has under-estimated the significance of the fact that in his experiment with Sargophaga a similar transmission took place in 2 cases out of 12.—Ed.]

* [Mr. E. E. Austen has kindly supplied the following note on Limosina punctipennis, Wied.:— “This species occurs throughout the Tropics, from Brazil to Formosa. Originally described from a specimen from the ‘East Indies,’ it has since been met with in South Formosa and North-West India, Java (on excrement, apparently of a monkey:—de Meijere, J. C. H., Tijdschr. v. Ent., LIV, 1911, p. 425)Google Scholar, Hawaii (2,000–4,000 ft.), West Africa, Cuba, St. Vincent, and Brazil. Osten Sacken, who found the fly “ abundantly in Cuba,” and redescribed it under the name Borborus venalicius, regarded it as probable that the insect had been carried from Africa to Cuba in slave-ships,—a hypothesis which may be correct, but is naturally incapable of proof.”—ED.]