TASTE IN INSECTS. 27 



while they would likewise fare worse after they had 

 effected a lodgment ; * but whether this selection is 

 made through the medium of taste, smell, touch, or 

 vision, we have no means of ascertaining. 



The midge, however, is by no means peculiar in 

 its apparent capriciousnes of taste ; for the same 

 preference and antipathy is exhibited by most of the 

 other blood-sucking insects. Of two individuals, for 

 example, who had been together for a whole day 

 on a nutting expedition, and who slept in the same 

 bed-chamber, next morning one was covered all over 

 with red blotches from the attacks of the harvest- 

 bug {Leptus autiim7ialis, Latr.), while the other 

 was quite untouched.! Stewart says that this mite 

 chiefly attacks women and children. J 



Harvest-bug (Leptus autumnalis), greatly magnified. 



A species of this family (Acarma), probably the 

 red tick {Pediculus coccineuSj Scopoli), or a mite 

 {Leptus Phalcmgii), described by De Geer, appears 

 to be much more indiscriminate in its tastes ; for 



* Insect Architecture, page 412. 

 t J. R. :|: Elements, ii, 324. 



