DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 

 90 



the whites born in tlie torrid zone walk barefoot with impunity in the same 

 apartment were 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, tlie cellular membrane and blood 

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



You have already, perhaps, been satiated with the account before 

 given of our enemies of the Acarus tribe : there are a few, however, 

 which I could not with propriety introduce there, as they do not take up 

 their abode and breed in us, which nevertheless annoy us considerably. 

 One of these is a hexapod so minute, that, were it not for the uncommon 

 brilliancy of its color, which is the most vivid crimson that can be con- 

 ceived, it would be quite invisible. It is known by the name of the harvest- 

 bug {Leptus autumnalis), and is so called, 1 imagine, from its attacking 

 the legs of the laborers employed in the harvest, in the flesh of which it 

 buries itself at the root of the hairs, producing intolerable itching, attend- 

 ed by inflammation and considerable tumors, and sometimes even occa- 

 sioning fevers.- — A similar insect is found in Brazil, abounding in the 

 rainy season, particularly during the gleams of sunshine, or fine days that 

 intervene ; as small as a point, and moving very fast. These animals get 

 upon the linen and cover it in a moment ; afterwards they insinuate them- 

 selves into the skin and occasion a most intolerable itching. They are 

 with difficulty extracted, and leave behind them large livid tumors, which 

 subside in a day or two. An insect very tormenting to the wood-cutters 

 and the settlers on the Mosquito shore and the bay of Honduras, and 

 called by them the doctor, is thought to be synonymous with this.'' — More 

 serious consequences have been known to follow the bite of another mite 

 related to the above, if not the same species, common in Martinique, and 

 called there the Bete rouge. When our soldiers in camp were attacked 

 by this animal, dangerous ulcers succeeded the symptoms just mentioned, 

 which, in several cases, became so bad, that the limb affected was obliged 

 to be taken ofF.^ 



I was once collecting insects in Norwood, near London, when my hands 

 were covered by a number of small hungry ticks, which were so greedy 

 after blood, that they penetrated deep into my flesh, giving me no little 

 pain ; and it was not without difficulty that I extracted them. I suspect 

 that this was the dog-tick {Ixodes Ricinus) which is often found on plants ; 

 but I am not certain, as I neglected to examine it, my attention at that 

 time being almost wholly given to Coleoptera. Lyonnet seems to have 

 been attacked, in one of his entomological excursions, by the same or a 

 similar insect, which he broke, so firmly had it fixed itself, in endeavoring 

 to extract it ; and he was obliged to lay open the place lest an abscess 

 should be formed.^ But the worst of all the tick tribe is the American 

 (Ixodes americanus) described by Professor Kalm. This insect, which is 

 related to the preceding, is found in the woods of North America, and is 



1 Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 101. See Mr. Westwood's description of this insect (which, 

 as before observed, he has separated as a distinct genus under the name of Sarcopsylla pene- 

 trans) in Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. ii. 199 ; and also Mr. Sells's observations on its economy 

 and habits, ii. 196. 



« Natural Miscell. ii. I. 42. 



3 Lindley in the Royal Military Chronicle for March 1815, p. 459. 



* I owe this information to the late Robinson Kitloe, Esq., formerly Clerk of the Cheque 

 m the King's Yard, Woolwich. ^ Lesser L. ii. 222, note *. 



