50 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



genus Stomoxys (S. calcitrans, F.) ; and on a second ex- 

 amination you will find that, however alike in most re- 

 spects, they differ widely in the shape of their probo- 

 scis ; that of the Stomoxyr, being a horny sharp-pointed 

 weapon, capable of piercing the flesh, while the soft 

 blunt organ of the Musca is perfectly incompetent to 

 any such operation. In future, while you no longer 

 load the whole race of tlie house-fly with the execra- 

 tions which properly belong to a quite different tribe, 

 you will cease being surprised that an ordinary de- 

 scription should be insufficient to discriminate an in- 

 sect. It is to this insufficiency that we must attri- 

 bute our ignorance of so many of the insects mentioned 

 by the older naturalists, previously to the systematic 

 improvements of the immortal Linne : and to the same 

 cause we must refer the impossibility of determining 

 what species are alluded to in the accounts of many 

 modern travellers and agriculturists who have been 

 ignorant of Entomology as a science. Instances with- 

 out number of this impossibility might be adduced, but 

 I shall confine myself to two. 



One of the greatest pests of Surinam and other low 

 regions in South America, is the insect called in the 

 West Indies, where it is also troublesome, the chigoe 

 (Pulex penetrans, L.), a minute species, to the attacks 

 of which I shall again have occasion to advert. This 

 insect is mentioned by almost all the writers on the 

 countries where it is found. Not less than eight or 

 ten of them have endeavoured to give a full descrip- 

 tion of it, and some of them have even figured it ; and 

 yet, strange to say, it was not certainly known whether 

 it was a flea (Pulej) or a mite (Acarus), till a com- 



