HARVEST BUG TURNIP FLY. 139 



summer, but more particularly from vast armies of chafers, 

 or tree- beetles, which, in many places, reduced whole woods 

 to a leafless naked state. These trees shot again at mid- 

 summer, and then retained their foliage till very late in 

 the year. 



My musical friend, at whose house I am now visiting, has 

 tried all the owls that are his near neighbours, with a pitch- 

 pipe set at concert pitch, and finds they all hoot in B flat. 

 He will examine the nightingales next spring. 



LETTER XLIII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SELBORNE, March 30, 1771. 



DEAR SIR, There is an insect with us, especially on 

 chalky districts, w r hich is very troublesome and 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 bug) 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 



* Most probably acarus autumnalis. It buries itself at the roots of the 

 hairs on the extremities, producing intolerable itching, attended by 

 inflammation and considerable tumours, and sometimes even occasioning 

 fevers. W. J. 



