My own observations on the larvae were restricted to a few Caribou
specimens in June and in the autumn. As with the Reindeer, the Caribou
fawns in their first autumn showed no visible infestation, as I noted in
looking over some fresh hides on September 10, and as was noted again in
a fawn of September 26. Fred Schweder, Jr., made the remark that larvae
would be evident in the fawns by the following spring; this may indicate
that the larvae have not, in the autumn, completed their journey to
their final position on the Caribou’s back. I learned of no immunity on
the part of old adults.
Fullgrown larvae still remained in bucks secured on June 3 (fig. 17) and
18. According to Charles Schweder, they drop out in June. In the buck of
June 3 there were perhaps several dozen warbles, each surrounded by a
mass of repulsive tissue; in another buck of June 18, there were
apparently more than 75. “It may be assumed,” says Johansen (1921: 24),
“that the pupae lie on the ground for about a month before the flies
appear.” He found (1921: 29) the adult flies abroad at Dolphin and Union
Strait by July 14.
In a buck of August 17 the new warbles (or perhaps merely warble scars
from the previous June--_cf._ Banfield, 1951a: 32) on the inside of
the skin were not very numerous. Some were medium-sized, but most were
so small that it was not deemed necessary to scrape them off; they had
comparatively little fatty tissue about them and were merely allowed to
dry up. The number of warbles (or warble scars) found in autumn
specimens varied considerably, up to a maximum of roughly 200. They were
situated mostly along the mid-dorsum, and more on the lower back or rump
than farther forward. The number appeared to be approximately 130 in the
skin of an adult doe that was nailed to the log wall of a cabin for
drying on September 15 (fig. 18). A doe of September 21 seemed to have
less than the usual number of warbles.
The nostril fly (_Cephenemyia_) is another serious dipterous parasite of
the Caribou. The life history of the European _C. nasalis_ (L.) (or
_C. trompe_ [L.]) and its effect on Reindeer are discussed by Bergman
(1917), Natvig (1918), and Jacobi (1931: 245) as follows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account