P U L E X. 



505 



Cation, have proved perfect stumbling-blocks to philo- 

 sophical entomologists. The peculiarities connected 

 with the first of these groups we have sufficiently 

 noticed iu page sixty-three of the present volume ; 

 whilst the apterous condition of the second, in an 

 extensive group of animals which are almost inva- 

 riably winged, or at least wing-cased, is not. without 

 interest ; and we have now to direct our attention to 

 the flea. We take it for granted that some, perhaps 

 many of our readers, will smile at our folly, as they 

 will perhaps term it, in investigating the structure, 

 history, and classification!!! station of the flea ; but, 

 as it happens that a knowledge of the structure, 

 history, and classifications! station of every animal is 

 required to enable us to perfect our views of natural 

 history ; and as it also happens, as above remarked, 

 that the flea is one of those anomalous creatures 

 which, in all these points of view, have much per- 

 plexed entomologists, our enquiries may not, perhaps, 

 after all, be so absurd as they might at first appear. 



The Flea (Pitfrj; in-itnn:S. 



The body of these insects is of small size, of a 

 hard shining integument, clothed with sharp bristles, 

 arranged in tranverse series upon the back and on 

 the legs. It is very much compressed and apterous ; 

 rudiments of wings and wing-cases exist in the shape 

 of two flattened plates on each side of the bodv above 

 the posterior legs ; the head is small ; the month in 

 the form of a rostellum, consisting of the six ordinary 

 parts of an elongated form, and provided at the base 

 with a pair of articulated organs, which have been 

 1 regarded as antenna?, but which are in fact the max- 

 illary palpi ; the true antennae arc of minute size, and 

 inserted in a cavity on the side of the head which is 

 ordinarily closed by a rnoveable valve ; the basal 

 joint of the fore legs is hori/.ontal, and extends 

 beneath the head, so that the fore legs appear to 

 arise from the head ; the legs are strong, and formed 

 for leaping to a very great distance ; the tarsi are 

 five-jointed, and terminated by two large hooks. 



We are indebted to Messrs. Kirby, Curtis, and 

 Duges, for valuable dissections of the various essential 

 organs of the flea, which, previously thereto, had not 

 been satisfactorily ascertained ; consequently, as 

 palpi were regarded as antennae, antenna? overlooked, 

 &c., it is no wonder that views concerning these 

 insects and their relations should have been im- 

 perfect. 



Of the history of these insects, in their perfect 

 state, we need not say much. Kvery one has pro- 

 bably, at one time or other, suffered from their bites, 

 and felt, at the same time, the impossibility of secur- 

 ing the little tormentor, which "comme 1'amonr. lit 

 en surete de la blcssure qu'elle a faite et de la colere 

 qu'elie occasionne ." But the flea does not always 

 escape, nor is it, always regarded with disgust. 

 *' Dear Miss," said a lively old ladv to a friend of 



mine (who had the misfortune to be confined to her 

 bed by a broken limb, and was complaining that the 

 fleas tormented her), "dout you like ileus? Well, T 

 think they are the prettiest little merry things iu the 

 world. I never saw a dull flea in ail my lite*." 

 M. 'Bertolotto, the flea exhibitor, must be a man 

 of infinite patience to train his regiment of fleas 

 as he has done, producing an exhibition iu which a 

 first-rate mini of Avar, of 1:20 guns, with rigging, 

 sails, anchor, and every thing requisite in a three- 

 decker, not omitting a numerous crew, placed on 

 a car of gold with four wheels, are drrwn by a 

 single flea. A four-wheeled carriage, on springs, 

 with four persons inside, the coachman on the box, 

 and a footman behind, is drawn by a single flea. 

 A gold chain of two hundred links, with a golden 

 ball at the extremity, is drawn by another flea, 

 Fleas, with golden saddles, bridles, c., carry figures 

 of proportionable size, representing Buonaparte and 

 one of his aids-de-camp. Another flea' draws up 

 and lets down a bucket from a well ; and two others 

 light a duel. There is, moreover, a representation of 

 the siege of Antwerp, in which the fort is attacked 

 by fleas with fire-arms and cannon, the explosion 

 being heard by the visitors, and General Chasse and 

 Marshal Gerard appearing on horseback, or, more 

 properly, on fleaback, which is succeeded by a grand 

 ballet, in which four of the performers (fleas), dressed 

 in male and female attire, dance a quadrille to the 

 music of a band of fleas playing on different instru- 

 ments, of which the tones are audible to the company, 

 and which is again succeeded by a representation of 

 his Majesty's stag-hunt, the stag and his pursuers 

 being personified by fleas. 



Many of the readers of popular works on natural 

 history will know that some of the feats performed 

 by M. Bertolotto's fleas are not new, and that similar 

 kinds of exhibitions have from time to time been 

 made with the flea ; but it is not every reader who is 

 aware that the flea undergoes a series of transforma- 

 tions as great as those of the butterfly or the bee. 

 On opening the body of a female flea ten or a dozen 

 oblong eggs, of a rounded form and white colour, 

 are discovered, which are deposited by the female in 

 obscure places, such as cracks iu the floor, or amongst 

 the hairs of rugs, where dogs are accustomed to lie. 

 From these eggs are hatched long worm-like grubs, 

 which twist about iu all directions, and which, having 

 attained their full growth, form for themselves silken 

 cocoons, when they become incomplete inactive 

 pupje, having the rudiments of all the limbs of the 

 future iuseet visible. These larva) arc supposed to 

 feed upon drops of congealed blood, which may be 

 found lying with the eggs. Such, at least, is the 

 opinion of M. De France, who has published a Me- 

 moir upon this subject in the first volume of the 

 ' : Annales des Sciences Naturellcs ;" but this part of 

 the history of the flea is certainly not clearly ascer- 

 tained. This author collected some ejrgs on the 23rd 

 of August ; on the f<th September they began to 

 form their cocoons ; and in sixteen more days they 

 appeared in their perfect, slate. Thus we see there 

 is no ground for the old notion, which Moun'et enter- 

 tained, that the flea is produced from the dust, espe- 

 cially when moistened with urine, the smallest onrs 

 springing from putrid matter ; or that recorded by 

 Scaliger, that they are produced from the moistened 



* Introduction to Entomology, vol. I, p. 102. 



