CHAPTER XII. 



WINGLESS INSECTS, MITES, SPIDERS AND 

 CUDWORMS. 



ONE of the principal characters of the insects to which 

 the next and last Order* is restricted, is their pro- 

 gressive development from the egg to the perfect state 

 without undergoing any intermediate metamorphoses. 

 Another important distinction is that they never ac- 

 quire wings, a fact for which all of us, who are not in- 

 different to the comfort of immunity from the attacks 

 of disgusting parasites, have reason to "rest and be 

 thankful." We have never seen the once notorious 

 Gregarine, we do not know what it is, but the other 

 companion of the unwashed and unkempt is pre- 

 sumably no rarity in the parish, and if it were pos- 

 sessed of the faculty of winging its way from one 

 human head to another, how vastly enlarged would be 

 its sphere of annoyance ! There is nothing particularly 

 repulsive in the personal appearance of the "lively 

 flea," but this cannot be said with truth of Pediculns 

 cervicalis, the very name of which, apart from its 

 scientific disguise, is proscribed in polite society. En- 

 tomologists, however, as may be anticipated, have not 

 been restrained by any feeling of squeamishness from 

 closely investigating the details of its structure and 

 economy. Leeuwhenhoek indeed, a very celebrated 

 Microscopist, is recorded to have tenderly nursed a pair 

 of lice in a stocking, which he wore night and day for 

 several weeks (examining its contents from time to time, 

 we presume), for the express purpose of qualifying him- 



Order APTERA from the Greek a, priv., and pteron, a wing. 

 Wings none. 



