REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 135 



by a small parasitic liymeuopterous insect, JDlapria agromysa', which. 

 prevents its multiplying to any great extent. The FliytcmyzidcVyhQmg 

 leaf-miners, produce the blister-like spots and winding passages which 

 may be so plentifully found deforming the leaves of our culinary vege- 

 tables and our shrubs and trees. They can readily be destroyed wh^i 

 they first make their appearance, by pinching the part affected between 

 the thumb and finger, and thus killing the maggot within. Where 

 there are a multitude of these leaf-miners at work, a top-dressing of 

 gas-lime, wood-ashes, or soot and lime, might be useful in destroying 

 such maggots as fall to the ground to bury themselves in the earth, or 

 undergo their metamorphoses on the surface. 



The IIip2)oJ)oscid(c, or louse-flies, are tlat, leathery insects, some of 

 them {Hippohosca, &c.) having wings, while fjjt. 35, 



others {MelopMgus) are apterous. They live 

 among the hairs of animals, or the feathers of 

 birds. The females of these insects do not lay 

 eggs like the other flies, but i^roduce their young- 

 only one or two at a time, and are born alive as 

 larvaj, ready to assume the pupa state. Hippo- 

 hosca equina (Fig. 25) in Europe is exceedingly troublesome to horses and 

 cattle; they possess two wings, and from their flat shape, and the 

 peculiar formation of their legs, they are able to crawl backward or side- 

 ways among the hair or feathers of the animals or birds they infest. 

 They may be destroyed or driven away by spirits of turpentine or by 

 washing with a decoction of tobacco. Melopliagus ovimis, Fig. 2G. 

 (Fig. 26,) or the sheep-tick, is a small louse-fl^', without 

 wings, that lives among the wool of sheep, and, in Europe, 

 is very troublesome. They may be destroyed by dip- 

 ping the sheep (with the exception of the face and head) 

 in a mixture of arsenic, soft-soaj), potash, and water, or 

 other arsenical preparations; but they, being highly pois- 

 onous, are very unsafe remedies, and cannot be recom- 

 mended for general use. Decoctions of tobacco, applica- 

 tions of brimstone, lard, parafQne oil, &c., about the neck, have been highly 

 spoken of by some farmers. Professor Yerrill says that " snuff or sul- 

 ]3hur in x^owder, rubbed thoroughly into the wool, is sometimes used with 

 good results, and a bath made by steeping tobacco in water, about 2 

 pounds to 1() gallons of water, in which the lambs are immersed, (ex- 

 cept the face,) is said to be effective, but in some cases has proved iu- 

 iurious to the health of the lambs ; probably the same solutions as 

 used for the fleas would be equally effective for these, but the strength 

 of the liquid should be adapted to the age, &c., of the animal to which 

 it is aiiplied.^' 



Fleas, although not mentioned by Loew or Ostensacken among the 

 diptera, by many other entomologists are classed with them, and Pro- 

 fessor Verrill regards them as " degraded diptera, in vv-hich the wings 

 are represented only by two pairs of stiff' scales, which have little or no 

 power of motion ."' These insects are very abimdant in the neighborhood 

 of hog-sties, «S:c., and may be driven away by scattering quicklime 

 about their haunts. The principal remedy against them is cleanliness, 

 and should the house dogs be loermitted to sleep on the door-mats or 

 rugs, these should be scalded every week or two to destroy the living 

 inmates as well as their eggs and larva', which are in the form of small 

 footless white maggots, and live upon decaying vegetable and animal 

 matter found in the dirt and rubbish. When dogs are kept in kennels, 



