772 



INSECTS ABEOAD. 



" You ask me whether I am practically acquainted with the 

 Chigoe. Eather so ; just a little ; in fact, I may say that we 

 have been on terms of most intimate acquaintance for some 

 years. 



"As far as I have read upon the subject, a great deal of 

 rubbish has been written about the Chigoe. It is true that our 

 friend is a great nuisance in his way, but in six years I have 



never known, or ever 

 heard, of anyone being 

 much the worse for the 

 Chigoe, though I have 

 seen some people too lazy 

 to extract them until their 

 feet were full of their 

 nests. As far as my ex- 

 perience goes, I can only 

 ^ state that for six or eight 

 O^ days after they have made 

 their entrance, there is no 

 trouble beyond a slight 

 itching, and then, if they 

 are extracted with any reasonable amount of care, the nest of 

 eggs comes away all correct. If it should be broken, which 

 will happen sometimes, a pinch of snuff is put into the hole, 

 and there is an end of the matter. 



" I may be more thick-skinned than other people, and not 

 suffer the same amount of inconvenience, but such is my ex- 

 perience. Since February last, when I came to this house, 

 which is an old Brazilian Fazenda, I have had literally hun- 

 dreds taken out of my toes. During the past month there 

 would be half a dozen at a time boring away and removed two 

 or three times a day. Some would escape observation for a few 

 days ; then out they come on the point of a pin, are put in the 

 candle, and go ' Pop.' Now, after four months' continual wash- 

 ing and scraping of floors, they are so much diminished that I 

 sometimes pass a couple of days without one. Mr. B. has just 

 sent me a fine one for you. I don't know whether it will be of 

 any use to you, but I enclose it. If you want any more, only 

 say so." 



Fig. 520.— Pules penetrans 

 (Red-brown.) 



