542 



THE ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN 



found also in Cayenne and Venezuela. This like other species 

 is known in South America as bichuque or benchuca. 



[A few other unimportant species are also recorded as biting man, 

 such as Harpactor cnicntas, in the South of France; Eulyes amana, 

 from Borneo and Java ; Arihis carinatus, Forster, from Brazil. 

 The latter appears to be the same as the Acanthia serratns, 

 Fabricius. F. V. T.] 



Order. Orthoptera. 



[The only Orthoptera recorded as doing actual harm to man are certain wing- 

 less locusts found in Africa. The cysticercus stage of a small tapeworm found in 

 rats and man has been found in an earwig (Alcock). 



[The strange Hemimeridce found in West Africa, resembling wingless cock- 

 roaches, are parasitic on rats (Cricetomys). Phasmidcs, or stick insects, are said to be 

 able to eject a fluid which may cause blindness if it comes in contact with the eyes. 



LOCUSTS INJURIOUS TO MAN. 



[A wingless \ocust-Enyalwpsis durandi, Luc is recorded by Wiggins 1 as 

 injurious to man in Uganda. "The bite of this insect," it is said, "gives rise to a 

 very nasty eruption, which may extend over the whole body, with high temperature 

 and general malaise. The skin at the site of the bite sloughs away, and generally 

 leaves a large deep cavity, which heals very slowly." 



[An allied species E. petersi, Schaum emits a clear yellow fluid, but according 

 to Marshall this does no harm. 2 Stannus writes that " for some years I have been 

 cognizant of the fact that among the natives of Nyasaland an allied if not the 

 same species is held to cause skin lesions by the emission of a fluid on the bare skin 

 surface of the body. I have seen cases of ulcers on various parts of the body, for 

 which the ' nantundua ' was assigned as the cause." He then describes the destruc- 

 tion of the superficial layers of the skin which he observed after the yellow fluid had 

 been on the skin twelve hours. F. V. T.] 



Order. Coleoptera. 



The larvae of beetles, similarly to those of some other Arthropoda (myriapods 

 and the larvae of gnats), have sometimes been observed in man as purely accidental 

 guests. In one case or another, such accounts may have originated through a 

 mistake of the observer. Thus English doctors report the presence of the larvae of 

 Blaps mortisaga in the stools of human beings, Sandberg of the larva of Agrypnus 

 murinus in his ten year old son, and Blanchard mentions the larva of a beetle that 

 was vomited by a child. All these cases, however, do not represent actual parasitism, 

 although there are beetles living parasitically. 3 



Silvanus surinamensis, Linnaeus (Saw-toothed Grain Beetle). 



[Taschenberg records this beetle as having invaded some sleep- 

 ing apartments adjoining a brewery where stores were kept, and 

 annoying the sleepers at night by nipping them when in their beds. 



i Bull. Ent. Res., 1910, i, pt. 3, p. 227. 2 Ibid., 1911, ii, pt. 2, p. 180. 



3 [Dr. Daniels has sent me a small coleopterous larva found in an abscess on a man in 

 British Guiana. F. V. T.] 



