18 
On some ParasiticaL Insects from CuINa. 
By Henry Gie.io.i. 
Some time since, Mr. Swinhoe, who has done so much 
towards advancing our knowledge of Chinese ornithology, 
presented me with several parasitical insects, which he had 
met with during his zoological investigations in China. 
Finding them interesting and mostly new, I thought that a 
description of them might be useful. 
They are seven in all; four belonging to the Anoplura, and 
the three others to the Diptera. I shall commence with the 
former; first giving my best thanks to Mr. H. Denny, of Leeds, 
who has most kindly assisted me in identifying the species. 
It is to that persevering Italian naturalist, Francesco 
Redi, that the history of epizoic parasites owes its beginning, 
towards the latter part of the seventeenth century. Since 
then, De Geer, Fabricius, Latreille, Leach, and Burmeister, 
have contributed not a little to that part of entomology 
which the recent labours of Léon Dufour, Denny,* and 
Gervais,t+ have so much advanced. . 
De Geer first divided them into—Pediculi (with a suctorial 
mouth, and inhabiting chiefly mammals), and Ricini (with a 
mandibulated mouth, and living mostly on birds). Dr. Leach 
included both divisions under the term Anoplura. 
Those I shall describe belong to the Ricini. These creatures 
abound on birds, many species of which possess their peculiar 
louse, and some even two or three species, found only on 
them; they hide amongst the feathers, on the extremities of 
which they appear when the bird dies. 
Some authors opine that the down next to the skin 
constitutes their nourishment, while others, with more reason, 
think that they live on the blood of their host. 
The Anoplura here described all belong to the old genus 
Philopterus of Nitzsch, which has by subsequent authors been 
divided into several genera. 
Genus Lipzurvs, Nitzsch. 
‘Body more or less narrow and elongated. Head of moderate 
size, rather narrow; cheeks rounded, no trabeculae. 
* H. Denny, ‘Monogr. Anoplurorum Britannie.’ 
{ Walckenaer et Gervais, ‘Hist. Nat. des Insectes Aptéres,’ vol. iii, pp. 
307—361, Paris, 1844. 
t ‘ Thierinsekten,’ p. 34. 
