OF HARTING. 427 



them, we actually saw the lids of several of them fly 

 open, and the young bugs make their way out. The 

 group of beautifully glossy white empty shells, with 

 their lids and spring hinges still adhering to them, we 

 kept many years as a very interesting object for the 

 microscope, but to our great regret we have long since 

 lost sight of them. 



It has been well said by an eminent writer on 

 Entomology,* that " nothing in nature that possesses 

 or has possessed animal or vegetable life, is safe from 

 the attacks of insects," the swiftest animals known to 

 man cannot run or fly away from them, the most 

 ferocious beast on the face of the earth cannot frighten 

 them, and man himself, under certain not very rare 

 conditions, finds his patience and endurance severely 

 taxed by them. To say that the Flea is one of his 

 special tormentors would be superfluous, but as the 

 whole of the next order f is monopolized by this well- 

 known insect, and as some account of its economy, 

 apart from its phlebotomizing practices, might be new, 

 if not interesting, to those who have never been on 

 social terms with the family, we cannot wholly ignore 

 its claims to our notice. 



We learn then from Westwood and others, that the 

 common bed flea lays ten or twelve roundish white 

 eggs in the cracks in the floor, or amongst the hairs of 

 rugs and carpets, particularly those on which dogs 

 are accustomed to lie, or indeed in any dry corner in 

 a dwelling where mops and brooms are unknown, not 

 improbably even among the soiled " confidential gar- 

 ments" in households composed of individuals that 

 are habitually indifferent to the virtue of personal 



In Kirby and Spence. 



t Order APHANIPTERA. From the Greek aphanes, incon- 

 spicuous and pteron, a wing. Wings four, represented by 

 minute scaly plates. 



