126 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



cruel and ferocious in its manners ; they kill and de- 

 vour their own young- without pity as soon as they are 

 born, and they are equally savage to their fellows m hen 

 grown up. Terrible however and revolting as these 

 creatures appear, we are gravely told by Naude, that 

 there is a species of scorpion in Italy which is domes- 

 ticated and put between the sheets to cool the beds 

 during the heats of summer^! ! 



I must next say something of insects that annoy us 

 solely by their jaws. Of this description is SolpNga 

 araneoides, F. (Galeodes, Oliv.) which is related to the 

 scorpion, although devoid of a sting. The bite of this 

 animal, which is a native of the Cape of Good Hope 

 and of Russia^, is represented to be often fatal both to 

 man and beast. Another species of Solpuga is described 

 by Professor Lichtenstein, which, from the trivial name 

 that he has given it (Jtifale), may be supposed to be as 

 venomous as the former'". 



The bite of one of the centipedes (Scolopendra mor- 

 sitans, L.) — the under-jaws of which are armed with a 

 strong claw, furnished like the sting of the scorpion w ith 

 an orifice, visible under a common lens*^, from which 

 poison issues — is less tremendous than that of the Sol- 

 puga: but though not mortal, its wounds are more 

 painful than those produced by the sting of the scor- 

 pion ; and as these animals creep every where, even 

 into beds, they must be very annoying in warm climates 

 where they abound. Dr. Martin Lister, in his Travels, 

 has given us a figure of an insect related to this genus, 



" Andrews's ^neccZo/cs, 427. See on the subject of Scorpions Araorrux, 

 41-51. 176-205. " Fab. .Supp'- 294. 2. '' Catal. Ham. 1797. 151-195. 

 "Plate VII. Fig. VS. f.d. 



