470 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



entomologists ; and this new parasite, like every oilier 

 discovery, ancient or modern, seems to supply a missing link 

 obviously required. Just in the same way as the females of 

 Psyche and Stylops are degraded forms of Lepidoptera and 

 Coleoptera respectively, so are the Parasita of Latreille a 

 degraded group, or, if divided, degraded groups of the 

 Insecta. 



Seeing the universal distribution of lice, it has occurred to 

 speculative philosophers to enquire into the utility, the 

 cui bono, of this animated tax on living beings. Some 

 have suggested that the irritation they occasion promotes 

 that gentle, but almost unceasing muscular action, which is 

 admitted on all hands to be conducive to health ; others have 

 expressed a belief that these creatures are a weapon in the 

 hands of Providence for the punishment of great offenders ; 

 and the names of Pheretima, Sylla, the two Herods, Maximin, 

 and Philip II. of Spain, have been cited as illustrations of 

 this hypothesis ; of course the third plague of Egypt would 

 have been added to the category had it occurred to these 

 ingenious speculators. Kirby and Spence, in their invaluable 

 ' Introduction to Entomology,' prettily suggest that these 

 creatures " seem to have been created to punish inattention 

 to personal cleanliness;" but this explanation will scarcely 

 admit of general application, since the irritation they induce 

 in the pig — " the lordly pig," as an enthusiast in the chase 

 has called him — produces an inclination to wallow in the 

 mire, and thus add a coating of mud to his customary 

 panoply of filth. The same work, now happily in the hands 

 of every entomologist, will show that Hottentots and other 

 tribes of our fellow-creatures in South Africa habitually feed 

 on these parasites, and that they were called by classical 

 writers — Phthirophagi. This taste, moreover, is abundantly 

 developed in the monkeys, which may be regarded as the 

 typical Phthirophagi, for it is impossible to visit zoological 

 gardens in any part of the world without finding proof of the 

 universality of this taste among our " poor relations." The 

 very eye of a monkey thus seriously engaged, whether on a 

 fellow-creature or on himself, is indicative of intense interest 

 in the pursuit. 



Edward Newman. 



