HARVEST MITE. 95 



analogous to the bustard, whom it also somewhat resembles in 

 aspect and make, and in the structure of its feet. 



For a long time I have desired my relation to look out for 

 these birds in Andalusia ; and now he writes me word that, for 

 the first time, he saw one dead in the market on the third of 

 September. 



When the &dicnemus flies it stretches out its legs straight be- 

 hind, like a heron. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XXXIV. To T. PENNANT, Esa. 



DEAR SIR, Selborne, March 30, 1771. 



THERE is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, which 

 is very troublesome and teasing all the latter end of the summer, 

 getting into people's skins, especially those of women and child- 

 ren, and raising tumours which itch intolerably. This animal 

 (which we call an harvest bug) is very minute, scarce discernible 

 to the naked eye ; of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of 

 Acarus. They are to be met with in gardens on kidney-beans, 

 or any legumens ; but prevail only in the hot months of summer. 

 Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested by 

 them on chalky downs ; where these insects swarm sometimes 

 to so infinite a degree as to discolour their nets, and to give them 

 a reddish cast, while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into 

 fevers.* 



There is a small long shining fly in these parts very trouble- 

 some to the housewife, by getting into the chimneys, and laying 

 its eggs in the bacon while it is drying ; these eggs produce 

 maggots called jumpers, which, harbouring in the gammons and 

 best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, and make great 

 waste. This fly I suspect to be a variety of the musca putris of 

 Linnaeus :*f* it is to be seen in the summer in farm-kitchens on 

 the bacon-racks and about the mantle-pieces, and on the ceilings. 



The insect that infests turnips and many crops in the garden 

 (destroying often whole fields while in their seedling leaves) is 



* Harvest mite (acarus antumnalis) > a most tormenting insect, but which is nevertheless pro- 

 perly a vegetable feeder. ED. 



t Supposed to be the common cheese-hopper fly (piophila com of entomologists) , the larva of which 

 is well known as the maggots which are found in cheese, while the perfect insect must be equally 

 familiar to most persons as the very small black flies which are often seen on windows. En. 



