438 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I can not leave this subject without a good word for the birds. They are a 

 mighty host in this warfare. Even tlie robin, the jay and the grackel — though 

 so often vilified — are the persistent friends of the farmer. Should we kill or 

 drive off our feathered friends, we should only bid — and successfully, too — for 

 the calamities which have visited the treeless and birdless plains of Kansas and 

 !^Jebraska. 



PARASITES ON DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



PEOFESSOR A. ,T. COOK. 



[Read at Howell and Centreville Institutes.] 



I think that in all the vast realm of insect life, there are no other species so 

 justly abhorrent and so miserably disgusting as the external parasites on man 

 and the lower animals. Their very look is repulsive, their habits intolerable, 

 in sooth they are fit companions of the dirt and filth which ever serve as the 

 kindly foster-mother to these most repellant of animals. AVcll may the neat 

 housewife start aghast at the sight of the nasty bed-bug, or blush with shame 

 and confusion at the news that her own fond kin are nourishing those repulsive 

 pigmies, the head-lice. The thrifty farmer also dreads the presence of these 

 terrible blood-thirsty minions on his kine, for he knows that the prosperity of 

 his animals is well-nigh impossible, if they must give of their substance to 

 nourish these noxious pests of the barn and poultry house. 



FLEAS, FAMILY PULICID.E, SUU-ORDER DIPTERA. 



As the immature fleas live upon the organic matter of dirt and fiUii, these 

 animals can only thrive as the companions of untidyness and neglect. Hence, 

 we have more than one reason to congratulate ourselves tiiat our State is not 

 much troubled by these irritating pests. I have yet to see the human flea in 

 Michigan. But, with neglect and filth, the dog, cat and hen fleas will put in 

 an appearance even in our goodly State, and it is an unwelcome fact that these 

 latter are nothing loth to take a sip from our own precious blood, if opportunity 

 offers. The flea, structurally speaking, is a kind of non- 

 descript among insects, and hence has been ranked by 

 many able entomologists in a distinct sub-order — Aphan- 

 iptera. Others, and I think wisely, have regarded it as a de- 

 graded dipteron. The fact of its being ai)terous is cer- 

 tainly no objection to this, as all sub-orders have mem- .^ 

 bers that are wingless. The possession of labial palpi 

 (Fig. 1, d.), which are wanting in all other dipterous 

 insects, would seem a stronger reason for separation, yet 

 such differences are not wanting in other groups. AV'hen 

 we take into consideration their whole life economy, we 

 are quite warranted, I think, in grouping them witii our 

 house flics, mosquitoes, bot-flies, etc. 



* The (Inuvings to Ulustrate this paper were m.i({c by Mr. Sliermnn Upton, student of the Agri- 

 cultural (JoUcge. 



