46 FLEAS. 



buildings, well adapted for dr;/ shelter and nurture of Flea grubs, 

 ranged continuously along one side of the yard. The Fleas which 

 swarmed occasionally about the place were little less than a visitation. 



A great plague of Fleas is sometimes accommodated in such places 

 as the hassocks of a large church or cathedral, where there are free 

 sittings, or in the matting of a library, where circumstances are more 

 in favour of their taking possession than being removed. In the case 

 of the hassocks, I have known a periodical cleaning to disclose such 

 armies of the parent Fleas making their way from the disturbance of 

 their hassock head-quarters being beaten in the churchyard, that there 

 can be no reason for doubting that much of the future Flea supply 

 would have been found housed there if investigation was made. 



In the case of infested matting, an instance was given me of 

 presence of the plague in an old school or college library. In this 

 case it was only on raising the matting that the insects were dis- 

 covered. They appear to have been the common Flea, and the 

 workmen were the people who suffered. As the room was being 

 cleared out to be used for another purpose, the matting was destroyed, 

 having been down for about five or six years. 



Besides the numbers of published instances on record of Flea 

 grubs and eggs being found on rugs or dry places where infested 

 household animals habitually lay (even to half a teaspoonful of Flea 

 eggs being collected from a lady's dress who allowed a much-infested 

 "pet" to make her lap into its bed), I have known much commotion 

 caused by a quantity of "something" being found on the top of a 

 small ottoman where a house spaniel spent much of his time, and 

 which proved to be Fleas in egg or grub state, but, as so very often is 

 the case, not known to be such. 



The following account of the group of insects commonly known as 

 Fleas, in this case scientifically classed as Siphonaptera, extracted from 

 the U.8.A. publication by Prof. Herbert Osborn noted below,* is given 

 as a reliable condensed account of tbe characteristics of the group and 

 its life-history brought up to date : — 



" The insects of this group are characterized by the entire absence 

 of wings, by having the bodies compressed, the legs long and stout, 

 the coxae t being remarkably developed, giving them great leaping 

 power. The mouth parts are well developed, and adapted for suction, 

 all the species in the adult stage feeding upon the blood of mammals 



* ' Insects Affecting Domestic Animals ' (species of importance in North 

 America), p. 141, by Herbert Osborn, Professor of Zoology and Entomology, Iowa 

 Agricultural College, U.S.A. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomology, 

 Washington. 1896. 



t Coxa, the hip ; the chief division of the legs of insects, between ihe femur, or 

 thigh, and the thorax, or fore body. 



