LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. 277 



MantidcB came to my lamps. Hymenoptera, in June, began 

 to abound. Previously, numerous bees had been out, but in 

 June the space in front of the house swarmed with various 

 species of Scolia, Bemhex, Mutilla, S^c, but of these it will 

 be spoken elsewhere. Hemiptera were not numerous, nei- 

 ther did I meet with so many of peculiar forms as I had hoped. 

 The Diptera I would gladly say nothing about, for I love 

 Pkst Florida dearly ; I don't like to say anything to her dis- 

 credit ; but alas ! I can't do otherwise than tell the truth, the 

 whole truth, and nothing but the truth. There are, in East 

 Florida, musquitoes enough to teach the whole world, as Sam 

 Slick has it, the moral of feeling, and not only this world, but 

 another or two besides, and if the 'squetoes would not do it, 

 the sandflies would, and if the sandflies would not, the Ta- 

 hanid(B would. 1 once ran a thorn of Cactus Opuntia through 

 my boot into my ancle, and broke it off below the skin. I 

 I could not extract the barbed point, and so w^as lame for a 

 few days, and had to go about in low shoes. I fancied the 

 musquitoes had been busy one day at my foot, above the 

 shoe, so set to work to count the bites. There were marks of 

 nearly fixQ dozen bites on my ancles and instep, all swelled 

 up as big as peas. When collecting in the vicinity of the 

 swamps and ponds, hands, face, and neck came in for an 

 equal share of bites : the very time occupied in pinning an 

 insect enables a dozen to have a fair chance at you. Upon 

 the principle laid down by Lucretius, in his second book 

 concerning the nature of things, ^ it may not be uninteresting 

 to the English entomologist to know that there is a vast va- 

 riety in the sensations caused by the bites of various species 

 of musquitoes. There is a red fellow like our Culex rufus, 

 and another, like our C. annulatus, that bite pretty sharp, 

 but don't cause much pain, itching or swelling afterwards ; 

 there is another fellow, with pearly white wings, and semi- 

 transparent body and legs, that goes to work upon you so 

 gently that you don't perceive it, but ends in getting such a 

 meal at your expense, that he can hardly fly off with it ; 

 you know some twelve hours after where he got it from, and 

 won't forget for a couple of days. Then there is a brown 

 fellow who torments you both now and hereafter ; I mean 

 that his bite is very sharp, and that it leaves a good-sized 

 swelling to plague you for three days ; and if you rub it you 



Suave, mari magno turljantibus aequora ventis, 

 E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem : 

 Non quia vexari quemquam est jucunda voluptas, 

 Sed quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est. 



