THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 17 



INSECT BITES AND THE EFFECTS THEREOF. 



BY CHARLES P. LOUNSBURY, DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE, CAPE TOWN, S. AFRICA. 



The letter from Dr. Behr, under the caption, " A Cah'fornian Tick," 

 in the August issue of the Canadian Entomologist, bears on a subject 

 becoming fraught with interest to many investigators engaged in public 

 service. It is with the object of stating my crude ideas on the matter, 

 that of serious and exceptional effects sometimes following insect bites, 

 and of relating my experience with man-attacking ticks, that I contribute 

 this note. First, I think that a distinction should be drawn between the 

 sting or bite of insects (I use both " bite " and " insects " broadly) that 

 seek their prey for food only, as mosquitoes, ticks, and bugs, and those 

 whose attack is primarily and purposely to inflict injury, as centipedes, 

 spiders, and many hymenopterous insects. It is with the former class 

 only that I now concern myself 



There seems to be an object in all the intricate relationships between 

 the various forms of life, and, in general, we have not far to seek in ascer- 

 taining the object of any severe injury to one form by another. Rarely, 

 if at all, do we find an organism wantonly inflicting injuries that must act 

 directly for its own destruction. A mosquito, a flea or a tick seeks an 

 animal to supply itself with food ; and injury beyond that necessarily 

 caused in puncturing the skin and in stimulating the flow of blood from 

 the tissues beneath appears to be unnatural and abnormal. This direct 

 injury, unless immensely multiplied, is, I incline to believe, never of a 

 serious nature to a man or any other animal in a normal state of health. 

 For Argas persicus to inflict a bite which of itself proves fatal seems 

 monstrous. The destruction of the life of a man would not benefit the 

 tick, when all it requires is but a mere drop of blood ; and, on the other 

 hand, for its bite to prove fatal would soon bring the tick to the verge of 

 eradication. The case is quite difterent with the insects that consume 

 much of their host, as hymenopterous parasites for instance, for they 

 utilize their host to the utmost whilst destroying it. 



Reasoning thus, and influenced doubtless by recent discoveries in the 

 transmission of certain diseases by the agency of insects, I have come to 

 believe that the direct injury inflicted by any individual insect when seek- 

 ing a temporary supply or food is very rarely of a serious nature to a host 

 healthy in mind and body. When the number of parasites is immensely 

 multiplied, serious consequences may follow, but then we approach the 

 condition instanced in the case of hymenopterous parasites. Apparent 



