PARA8ITA. 357 



Three species live on Man ; their ova are termed / 

 In the two following species, the thorax is very distinct from the 

 abdomen, is about the same width and of a moderate length. They 

 constitute the genus Pedieutus properly so called of Leach*. 



P. humanu* corporis, De Geer, Insect., VII, 1, 7. Dirty 



white ; immaculate ; emarginations of the abdomen less salient 

 than in the following species. It is exclusively confined to the 

 body of Man, and increases to a frightful extent in the morbus 

 pediculosus. 



/'. /utnianus capilis, De Geer, Insect., VII, 1,6. Cinereous; 

 the spaces in which the stigmata are placed, brown or blackish; 

 lobes of the abdomen rounded. On the head of Man, and of 

 children particularly. 



The males of this and the preceding species, at the posterior 

 extremity of the abdomen, have a small scaly and conical ap- 

 pendage, resembling a string, which is probably the organ of 

 generation. 



Hottentots, Negroes, and various Monkeys, eat these Pediculi, or 

 are Phthiropagi. Oviedo pretends that these animals abandon the 

 Spanish mariners on their way to India as soon as they have reached 

 the tropics, but that on their return, when they arrive at the same 

 point, they find them in possession of their old quarters. It is also 

 said that iii India, however filthy be the individual, they are never 

 found except on the head. 



At one period the P. humanus was employed by the physicians for 

 the removal of ischuria they introduced it into the urethra. 



Dr. Leach forms a particular genus, Pkthirus^ of the P. pubis, 

 L.; Red., Exp., XIX, 1, which has a wide rounded body, a very 

 short thorax almost confounded with the abdomen, and the four 

 posterior feet very stout f. It is commonly called Morpion. It 

 attaches itself to the hairs of the genital organs and eye-brows. 

 Its bite is very severe. 



Redi has rudely figured several other species found on different 



Quadrupeds. That which lives on the Hog has a very narrow thorax 



with a very wide abdomen, and forms the genus Hcemaiopinus^ 



Leach J; the Pou du Bujfle, figured by De Geer, Insect., VII, 1,12, 



nts more important characters. 



The others Nirmidia, Leach such as the 



RICINUS, De Geer. NIRMUS, Herm. Leach, 



Have the mouth inferior, and cornet rnally of two lips and 



t\\o mandibles, resembling hooks. Their tarsi arc very distinct, arti- 

 culated, and terminated by two 4 equal hooks. 



One single species excepted, that of the Dog, they are all exclu- 



* Zool. Miscell., III. 



f For those species which live on Man, see the splendid work of Alibert on the 

 diseases of the ski H. 



J Zool. Miscell., CXLVI ; P.m, Panz., Faun. Insect. Germ. LI, xvi, 1. 

 The P. ccrvi, Panz., Ib., xv, belongs to the genus Mclophagw, of the Diptera. 



