312 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



Almost all we know, therefore, of the natural history of this 

 formidable insect has been derived from the observations of 

 others, our own unfortunate experience having taught us 

 enough of the sufferings they are able to cause, and con- 

 vincing us that if this sand-flea could leap like the common 

 flea, the whole of tropical America would become uninhab- 

 itable. 



The Sand-flea, or Chique, as we have already said, is very 

 small; but the hind body of the female, just before she de- 

 posits her eggs, swells to an enormous size for the animal 

 (we saw their bodies as large as a pea), and from it the head, 

 neck, and feet seem to stick out as if protruded from a bag. 

 The female almost imperceptibly, certainly without causing 

 any noticeable sensation, works herself into the skin of the 

 feet between the toe-nails and the flesh, as well as into the 

 hands. By-and-by this produces a little itching, which we 

 supposed at first to have been caused by a mosquito bite. 

 If this happens to a person well acquainted with the insect 

 and the country of which it is a native, it is sufficient to 

 attract his attention to it, and he will at once have it ex- 

 tracted with a fine needle, which operation is performed by 

 skillful negro women ; but if he is unacquainted, and this 

 operation be neglected, the hind body of the insect pene- 

 trates deeper and deeper into the flesh, and produces an ex- 

 cavation in it so deep that the abdomen, which resembles a 

 bag, is entirely concealed, and only the small head is visi- 

 ble. "When this bag, which contains an enormous number of 

 eggs, attains the size of a large pea it bursts, and the almost 

 invisibly small maggots creep out and scatter all over the 

 neighboring parts, burrowing into the flesh, and every where 

 forming new bags and excavations, by means of which not 

 only painful, itching sores, but even malignant ulcers are 

 generated. 



The negro women of San Domingo are so accustomed to 

 them, and so thoroughly trained, that they very skillfully 



