“Bay ™ 
“aug 
INSECTA. 305 
the prick of fleas and has dried into black globules, is often found dis- 
persed by the flea near the eggs that are laid in the chinks of wooden floors, 
in furniture, &c., and these globules form, according to the observations of 
Dr France (Ann. des Sc. nat. 1. 1824, pp. 440—443) the favourite food of 
the larvae. These larvee within eleven days are full grown, then spin them- 
selves up and change into pupe, from which after ten or eleven days the 
perfect insects appear ; in this way a new generation arises after the lapse 
of only four weeks. Comp. LEEUWENHOECK, Vierde Vervolg. van Brieven 
1694. bl. 537572, 76ste Missive, and Rouse, Jnsecten-Belustigung, 1. 
Mucken und Schnacken, s. 9—24. 
In America, particularly in the Brazils, there is a small species of flea, 
whose proboscis is longer ; the fore-feet are not so far forward, and whilst 
the labial palps are wanting, the three threads of the sucker are not sur- 
rounded by a bivalved sheath. Consequently it has been proposed to 
make a distinct genus of this species (Sarcopsylla Wxstwoop, Dermato- 
philus GUERIN). ‘This species, which lives in the open air, and is often in 
great numbers in sandy places, is Pulex penetrans L., DumMéRIL, Cons. gen. 
s. les Insects. Pl. 53, figs. 4, 5; GusRIN, Zconogr., Insect. Pl. 2, fig. 9; 
Kouiar, Brasilien’s vorziiglich lastige Insecten, fig. 5, s. 8,9. The Portu- 
guese call the animal Bicho, the Brazilians Twnga,; it bears also the name 
of Pique, Nigua', &c. and of Chigoe amongst the English residents. This 
insect penetrates beneath the skin of the feet, sometimes also of the hands 
of man, and of the feet of dogs and other mammals; the female, after she 
has penetrated beneath the skin, expands astonishingly, whence malignant 
ulcers arise, which sometimes occasion death. They infest principally newly- 
arrived Europeans: see V. HumBonp1’s Reise in die Aquinoctial-Gegenden 
des neuen Continents, IV. 1823, 8. 90, J.J. Von Tscuupt (who once had six 
tumours thus caused on his right foot) Peru, Reiseskizzen, 1. 1846, s. 310, 
311. A capuchin monk attempted to transplant a family of these insects 
from St Domingo to Europe, but his zeal remained unrewarded, for his foot 
in which he had harboured the colony, was obliged to be amputated on the 
voyage (Kirpy and Spencg, Introd. to Entomol. 1. p. 102). Comp. on this 
little animal also DuGEs, who especially has illustrated the parts about the 
mouth, Ann. des Sc. nat. sec. Série, Tom. v1. 1836. Zoologie, pp. 129—134. 
Pl. 7B. A forked caudiform appendage, already figured by Carrssy, and 
compared by Linnaus with the tail of Podura, is probably a male organ of 
copulation (GUERIN, Jconogr.); at least it does not occur in all individuals. 
ORDER V. Strepsiptera s. Rhipiptera. 
Hexapodal Insects; (male) with four wings; anterior wings two 
small moveable bodies, inserted into the sides of the thorax; pos- 
terior wings large, membranous, resembling a quadrant of a circle, 
folded longitudinally like a fan. (Females apterous, apodous). 
* Nigua is the name also given to a species of Acarus (Iaodes americanus), which 
also penetrates beneath the skin, and must not be confounded with this flea. 
VOL. I. 20 
