DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 103 



pests, which they do with unconimou dexterity. Yarico, 

 so celebrated in prose and verse, performed this kind 

 office for honest Ligon, who says, in his History of 

 Barbadoes, " I have had ten (Chegoes) taken out of my 

 feet in a morning, by the most unfortunate Yarico, an 

 Indian woman \" Humboldt observes, " that the whites 

 born in the torrid zone walk barefoot with impunity in 

 the same apartment where a European recently landed 

 is exposed to the attack of this animal. The Nigua 

 therefore distinguishes what the most delicate chemical 

 analysis could not distinguish, the cellular membrane 

 and blood of a European from those of a creole white ^." 

 You have already, perhaps, been satiated with the 

 account before o-iven of our enemies of the Acai^us tribe ; 

 there are a few, however, which I could not with pro- 

 priety introduce there, as they do not take up their abode 

 and breed in us, which nevertheless annoy us consider- 

 ably. One of these is a hexapod so minute, that, were 

 it not for the uncommon brilliancy of its colour, which 

 is the most vivid crimson that can be conceived, it would 

 be quite invisible. It is known by the name of the har- 

 vest-bug, [Leptus aiitumnalis,) and is so called, I imagine, 

 from its attacking the legs of the labourers employed in 

 the harvest, in the flesh of which it buries itself at the 

 root of the hairs, producing intolerable itching, attended 

 by inflammation and considerable tumours, and some- 

 times even occasioning fevers'^. — A similar insect is found 

 in Brazil, abounding in the rainy season, particularly 

 during the gleams of sunshine, or fine days that inter- 

 vene ; as small as a point, and moving very fast. These 



' p. 65, " Personal Narrative, E. T. v. ]0I. 



" Natural. MisceU., ii. t. 42. 



