Queries and Answers. 283 



cuticle of the palm. On looking at one of the cirri through a small pocket 

 microscope, it appeared covered by a number of small hooks ; and I think 

 it must be those that occasion the pain. 



There is a very good delineation of this animal in Forbes's Oriental Me- 

 moirs, but a little too highly coloured. 1 have not the work, or I would 

 send you a copy of it. They are not all of the same colour, some being 

 much brighter than others, and they are of various sizes. I am, Sir, &c. — 

 C. Jan., 1831. 



Lobster-like Insect attacking the Leg of a House-fly. (p. 94.) — Sir, I appre- 

 hend the circumstance of the common house-fly having been attacked 

 in the way described by O. was purely accidental, if his description of the 

 creature attacking it be correct. Judging from his observation of its having 

 claws resembling those of a lobster, it must have been a species of the 

 genus Chelifer Geof. and imc/i, belonging to the class Jrachnoida F/^r//^r, 

 &c., fara. (Scorpionidae Ijcach. There are several species of this genus ; 

 their most common habitat being beneath the bark of trees, and they are 

 occasionally met with in moss. Your correspondent will find a figure of 

 Chelifer cancroides in the second volume of Kirby and Spence, pi. v. fig. 5., 

 from which he will be able to judge of the correctness of my opinion. Had 

 your correspondent not alluded to the peculiarity in the form of the claw, 

 I should have concluded it to have been a parasite of the class ^'cari 

 Leacliy by which many Dlptera and Hymenoptera are attacked. About 

 three years since, my attention was called by my children to a fly ( ikf usca 

 vomitoria) which they described as being mad : it had been spinning about 

 upon its head, and appeared incapable of flying any distance. On taking 

 it up, I found it infested with an ^'carus, which I iDelieve to be the Ocj- 

 pete rubra Leach. The proboscis, neck, and anterior pair of legs were so 

 covered as to disfigure the fly ; and having enclosed it in a box, and fumi- 

 gated it, I destroyed both the insect and its tormentors. On counting the 

 number of ^'cari which were in the box, I found no* less than sixty-two, 

 which I preserved, placing them beneath the unfortunate insect in my 

 cabinet. Whether these pests are truly parasitical on the Dlptera, I think, 

 admits of doubt : the J'cari may attach themselves to their legs while they 

 are depositing their eggs in dung and corrupt animal substances, in which 

 J'cari abound. Bees, however, which do not frequent such matter, are 

 often met with similarly infested, particularly the common Bombus terres- 

 tris. — A. H. Davis. London, Feb. 7. 1831. 



A Lobster-like hisect attacking the Leg of a House-fly. (p. 94.) — Sir, 

 From the short account given of the insect attacking the ikfusca carnaria, 

 by your correspondent O., it may be inferred to be the Chelifer can- 

 croides, or book scorpion (Phalangium cancroides o( Lin.) ; if by lobster- 

 like is meant a small apterous insect, about the shape of the common bed- 

 bug, resembling a small scorpion without a tail, having eight legs, and 

 two long palpi like the arms or claws of a crab, with which it catches its 

 food, carrying them forward in rather a menacing attitude. Its motions 

 are quick, and it runs usually sideways, like the crab. It inhabits old 

 libraries and collections, feeding on the insects which infest those valu- 

 able repositories. Not only the entomologist should be inclined to culti- 

 vate the acquaintance of this little creature, and tender it his protection, 

 from its habits, but the herbalist will also find it a kind friend, and the 

 librarian and general collector will do well to allow it the free room of 

 their shelves and cases ; and last, though not least, the housewife will find 

 it of essential use where the Cimex lectularius abounds. Whether it eats 

 the eggs of the bug, or catches the young ones (which is most probable), 

 I have not been able to ascertain ; but I have frequently observed it in- 

 specting the haunts of this annoying insect, and on one occasion found it 

 among a range of eggs, which had been carefully emptied. 



