462 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



beds, particularly in their inns, swarm with 

 them ; and every piece of furniture seems to 

 afford them a retreat. They grow larger also 

 with them than with us, and bite with more 

 cruel appetite. 



This animal, if examined minutely, appears 

 to consist of three principal parts ; the head, 

 the corselet, and the belly. It has two brown 

 eyes, that are very small, and a little promi- 

 nent, besides two feelers, with three joints ; 

 underneath these there is a crooked trunk, 

 which is its instrument of torture, and which, 

 when in motion, lies close upon the breast. 

 The breast is a kind of ring, in which are 

 placed the two first pair of legs. The belly 

 consists of nine rings ; under which are placed 

 two pair of legs more, making six in all. Each 

 leg has three joints, which form the thigh, the 

 leg, and the foot, which is armed with a crooked 

 claw, like a hook. The body is smooth, ex- 

 cept a few short hairs, that may be seen by 

 the microscope, about the vent, and on the two 

 last rings. Its motion is slow and unwieldy ; 

 yet its sight is so exquisite, that the instant it 

 perceives the light, it generally makes good 

 its retreat ; and they are seldom caught, though 

 the bed swarms with them. 



If we examine this insect internally, we 

 shall find the great artery, which in all in- 

 sects performs the functions of the heart ; we 

 shall find the apertures of the lungs on the 

 right side and the left, through which the ani- 

 mal breathes ; we shall find a stomach and in- 

 testines, which, as in other animals, run from 

 the mouth to the anus. If the insect has been 

 long kept fasting, there will be a mucus found 

 in its body, like the white of an egg ; but if 

 crushed after a full meal, the human blood 

 which it has sucked in will appear a little 

 darkened, by having passed through the in- 

 sect's body. 



The male and female of these animals are 

 plainly distinguishable from each other ; and 

 the parts of generation are obvious enough. 

 They are often found coupling tail to tail ; and 



the medicaments of ancient doctors. They were pre- 

 scribed in wine for colic, and an ancient writer says, 

 " It is no new remedy, and it is a certain cure: it once 

 helped a governor of Zurich, so that he had like to have 

 written a commendation in favour of them." 



The Leek-Green Bug The leek-green bug is to 



found in Great Britain, as well as in many other parts of 

 Europe. Its body is green, without spots ; the abdomen 

 Mack above, the margin spotted with yellow; the body 

 beneath of a yellowish green ; with six yellow legs. The 

 antennae sometimes entirely reddish brown ; their last 

 joints are tipt with black. 



The Harvest Bug. This is one of the most teasing 

 little animals in nature. Though bred and intended, 

 like its congener, the red spider, to live on vegetables, 

 as currents, rasp-berries, and French beans, yet it will 

 desert these, whether by accident or design, to live on 

 and annoy the most delicate and sensitive portion of the 

 human race. These insects are so minute, that they are 

 only visible to the keenest eyes, and then only whci 



in this state are very easily destroyed. The 

 f emale has an ovary filled with eggs, joined 



ogether like a bunch of grapes ; each egg 

 Deing an oblong, almost cylindrical, inclining 

 :o white, and pretty transparent. In about 

 ;wo days after impregnation by the male, she 

 deposits her eggs to the number of about a 

 iimdred and fifty, in some convenient place 

 where they are likely to receive no disturbance. 

 There they continue for some months ; during 

 which time, neither cold nor heat, neither 

 moisture nor fumigation, can in the least re- 

 tard their exclusion ; but they come forth ac- 

 dve, and ready for mischief. 1 It is this hardi- 

 ness in the shell that seems to continue the 

 breed ; as the old ones die every winter, or 

 are easily destroyed by any fumigation that is 

 used for that purpose. But the eggs seem in- 

 capable of destruction; even those men who 

 make a livelihood by killing these nauseous 

 insects, though they can answer for the parent, 

 can never be sure of the egg. For this reason 

 they usually pay those houses to which they 

 are called a second or a third visit, and at last 



xterminate them by perseverance. 



The manner of destroying them seems rather 

 the effects of assiduity than antidote ; for the 

 men called in upon this occasion, take every 

 part of the furniture asunder, brush every part 

 of it with great assiduity, anoint it with a li- 

 quid which I take to be a solution of corrosive 

 sublimate, and having performed this opera- 

 tion twice or thrice, the vermin are most usu- 

 ally destroyed. 



Cleanliness, therefore, seems to be the best 

 antidote to remove these nauseous insects ; and 

 wherever that is wanting, their increase seems 

 but a just punishment. Indeed, they are 



placed on any very smooth white surface ; in course, they 

 are only known by their effects. Ladies and children are 

 the first to complain of their attacks; and chiefly where 

 any part of the dress fits closely to the skin. There 

 they seat themselves at the intersection of the lines, and 

 lay such firm hold with their feet and jaws, that they 

 cannot be displaced by rubbing, nor by washing, unless a 

 powerful spirit or acid be used. A microscope readily 

 detects them; and, by its assistance, they may be dis- 

 lodged with the point of a muslin needle, and, if placed 

 on writing-paper, will be seen to have eight legs, two 

 tentacula or feelers, and an abdomen something egg- 

 shaped ; colour livid red ; and in size no bigger than the 

 point of a small needle. They lacerate the epidermis in 

 some way or other, as a small hole is observable where 

 they have been seated ; and cause extreme itching and 

 considerable inflammation of the part. Magazine Nat. 

 Hist. 



1 The female bug (as we have stated in a previous 

 note) generally lays about fifty eggs at a time, which 

 are white, and when protruded are covered with a vis- 

 cous matter, which afterwards hardening sticks them 

 firmly to the place where they are deposited. These are 

 usually hatched in about three weeks. The young, for 

 some time after they first escape from the egg, are per- 

 fectly white, but they generally become brown in the 

 course of about three weeks. In eleven weeks they are at 

 full growth. 



