1838. HOUSE— No. 72. 75 



nisliing a caution against the careless use of articles containing eggs 

 'orlarvse of insects. In the year 1812, a woman in BiddeforcJ, 

 Maine, had an issue of long standing in the back of her neck. At 

 this period she was confined to a dark and dirty apartment. At 

 length the issue healed, soon after which a tumor rose at the part, 

 burst, and discharged a great number of larvae, a tea cup full as was 

 said. For several months these vermin seemed to be confined to 

 the part, occasionally crawling out ; but when the abscess healed, 

 the patient felt them to spread to the head, producing in their course 

 severe pains, described by her as itching, biting, and gnawing sensa- 

 tions. Some time after these sufferings, larvae were discharged from 

 the ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, varying in number and size, some- 

 times one hundred in twenty-four hours, some as small as a hair, 

 others almost as large as a pipe-stem, and two-thirds of an inch 

 long. The woman continued to be troubled with these vermin four 

 years. Some of them were sent to Boston, from one of which 

 Prof. Peck obtained the perfect insect. It proved to be the Tene- 

 brio just described. It is probable they were introduced in the egg 

 state, either by the parent insect gaining admission to the sore, or 

 what is more likely, that poultices, composed of meal containing eggs 

 or larvse, were applied to the sore, and proper attention to cleanli- 

 ness not having been given, the larvae established themselves unno- 

 ticed in the part. 



Tenebrio punctulatus, badius, Icevis, and several other species, are 

 found in the decayed trunks of trees, upon the debris of which the 

 larvae subsist, and resemble those of the meal tenebrio. 



The habits of the genus Cistela are similar to those of Tenebrio, 

 but their injuries to trees are greater, for they subsist upon wood less 

 advanced to decay than do the former. The body is oblong oval ; 

 The antennae are long, tapering towards the extremity, and sliglitly 

 serrated on one side ; the thorax is short and semicircular ; the eyes 

 are crescent-shaped ; the nails pectinated like the teeth of a comb. 

 This structure of the nails is peculiar to some insects, which, in 

 their perfect state, frequent flowers. 



The larvae are somewhat like those of tenebrio, but are much 

 more flattened, and the apex of the body terminates in three minute 

 spines, the central one of which is the most prominent. The ana) 



