312 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 
Almost all we know, therefore, of the natural history of this 
formidable insect has been derived from the observations of 
others, our own unfortunate experience having taught us 
enough of the sufferings they are able to cause, and con- 
vincing us that if this sand-flea could leap like the common 
flea, the whole of tropical America would become uninhab- 
itable. 
The Sand-flea, or Chique, as we have already said, is very 
small; but the hind body of the female, just before she de- 
posits her eggs, swells to an enormous size for the animal 
(we saw their bodies as large as a pea), and from it the head, 
neck, and feet seem to stick out as if protruded from a bag. 
The female almost imperceptibly, certainly without causing 
any noticeable sensation, works herself into the skin of the 
feet between the toe-nails and the flesh, as well as into the 
hands. By-and-by this produces a little itching, which we 
supposed at first to have been caused by a mosquito bite. 
If this happens to a person well acquainted with the insect 
and the country of which it is a native, it is sufficient to 
attract his attention to it, and he will at once have it ex- 
tracted with a fine needle, which operation is performed by 
skillful negro women; but if he is unacquainted, and this 
operation be neglected, the hind body of the insect pene- 
trates deeper and deeper into the flesh, and produces an ex- 
cavation in it so deep that the abdomen, which resembles a 
bag, is entirely concealed, and only the small head is visi- 
ble. When this bag, which contains an enormous number of 
eggs, attains the size of a large pea it bursts, and the almost 
invisibly small maggots creep out and scatter all over the 
neighboring parts, burrowing into the flesh, and every where 
forming new bags and excavations, by means of which not 
only painful, itching sores, but even malignant ulcers are 
generated. 
The negro women of San Domingo are so accustomed to 
them, and so thoroughly trained, that they very skillfully 
