CHAPTER III 



THE LIFE-HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE 

 BODY-LOUSE 



Development. The eggs or nits of the body- 

 louse are laid attached to fibres of cloth or some- 

 times to the hairs of the body. In shape the egg 

 (Fig. 5) is ovoid, about one-twenty-fifth of an 

 inch in length, with rather straight sides, and 

 closed at the top by means of a cap or operculum 



FIG. 4. PEDICULUS HUNANUS LAYING AN EGG ON HAIR. The gono- 

 pods (gon.) grasp the hair and direct the alignment of the egg. 

 (After Nuttall.) 



which is sculptured over part of its surface by 

 a circular area of small nodules. It is firmly 

 fixed in position by a hard cement which sur- 

 rounds the base of the egg and the strand to 

 which it is attached. According to Nuttall (1) 

 the female louse in ovipositing grasps the fibre or 

 hair on which it is laying the egg by means of its 

 gonopods (Fig. 3, 18, and Fig. 4), and by this 



