146 HARVEST BUG TURNIP FLY. 



LETTER XLIII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, March 30, 1771- 

 DEAR SIR, 



THERE is an insect with us, especially on chalky 

 districts, which is very troublesome arid teasing all 

 the latter end of the summer, getting into people's 

 skins, especially those of women and children, and 

 raising tumours which itch intolerably. This animal 

 (which we call an harvest bag) is very minute, scarce 

 discernible to the naked eye, of a bright scarlet 

 colour, and of the genus of acarus* They are to 

 be met with in gardens, on kidney beans, or any 

 legumens, but prevail only in the hot months of 

 summer. Warreners, as some have assured me, are 

 much infested by them on chalky downs, where 

 these insects swarm sometimes to so infinite a degree 

 as to discolour their nets, and to give them a reddish 

 cast ; while the men are so bitten as to be thrown 

 into fevers. 



There is a small, long, shining fly in these parts, 

 very troublesome to the housewife, by getting into 

 the chimneys, and laying its eggs in the bacon while 

 it is drying. These eggs produce maggots, called 

 jumpers, which, harbouring in the gammons and best 

 parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, and make 

 great waste. This fly I suspect to be a variety of 

 the musca putris of Linneeus. It is to be seen in the 



* Most probably acarus autumnalis. It buries itself at the 

 roots of the hairs on the extremities, producing intolerable itch- 

 ing, attended by inflammation and considerable tumours, and 

 sometimes even occasioning fevers. W. J. 

 12 



