THE ANOPLURA 



165 



be injected into the wound they make. These stabbers are forced 

 through the skin within the area encircled by the proboscis, saHva is 

 forced into the wound and after a few moments feeding begins, the blood 

 of the host being pumped into the body of the louse. 



Eggs or "nits" are laid singly, attached to the hairs of the host or in 

 some species, to the fibres of the clothing. They hatch in from 1 to 2 

 weeks, according to the species and the temperature, but when the 

 latter remains low, as where the eggs do not feel the effects of the warmth 

 of the host, they will not hatch (at least with the lice infesting man). 

 The nymph stage probably requires 8 to 10 days, though practically 

 nothing is known of the development except with the lice attacking 

 man. Several hundred eggs are usually laid by each female during a 

 period of nearly a month, so that a heavy infestation becomes possible 

 in quite a brief time. 



The Anoplura is a small group of insects, probably only about a 

 hundred species being known. They were formerly considered degener- 

 ate Hemiptera, but with the division of the 

 old Order Hemiptera into separate orders — the 

 Hemiptera in a more restricted sense and the 

 Homoptera — it has seemed more logical to regard 

 the Anoplura as also an Order, most closely re- 

 lated to these, but still sufficiently different to 

 entitle it to ordinal rank. 



The Human Body Louse {Pediculus humanus 

 L.).^This pest (Fig. 157), which during the 

 European war also received the common name 

 "cootie," is now generally regarded as being of 

 two races, the head louse (formerly called Pedi- 

 culus capitis) which is found chiefly on the head, 

 and the body louse {formerly Pediculus vestimenti 

 or P. corporis) found mainly on the clothing, 

 rather than different species, but the races differ 

 somewhat because of different conditions under 



which they live. This insect under ordinary conditions of cleanliness 

 can be easily controlled, but in camp hfe finds an opportunity to increase, 

 often almost without possibility of being checked. 



Under ordinary conditions a simple treatment for the race living on 

 the head is to wash thoroughly with tincture of larkspur, which can be 

 obtained of a druggist, and repeat this two or three times at intervals of 

 about a week. For the race living on the body, treatment is somewhat 

 different, as the pests are largely on the clothing, reaching across from this 

 to the skin to feed. Here boiling all clothing which can be so treated, 

 dry heating the rest to 130°F. for 3^^ hr. and taking a hot bath will usu- 

 ally be sufficient. 



Fig. 157. — Human Body 

 Louse (Pediculus humanus 

 L.) about eight times 

 natural size. (From 

 Beilese.) 



