352 A FACT THAT IS A FACT. 



crooked daws, which enable the animal to obtain a firm hold 

 on the skin. 



Thus, then, to judge from the aggregate of its characters, 

 the harvest bug, Leptus autumnalis, belongs to the class 

 Arachnidae, while the number of its feet places it in the class 

 Insects. But this is a detail which causes little annoyance to a 

 person being devoured by the " red beasts," and only anxious 

 to rid himself of them. 



But if such be his desire, let me tell him that the best 

 remedies are bathing the afflicted part with lotions of vinegar, 

 or rubbing it with sulphur ointment. 



I have been asked whether certain tiny parasites, such as 

 the Ocypete rubra^ which is also red, and has six feet like the 

 Leptus autumnalis, but which, instead of attacking man and 

 his domestic companions, attaches itself to flies, I have 

 been asked whether these insectiform Arachnidse may not be 

 species of larva not yet arrived at their matured condition. 



For my part, I must acknowledge that, whether the Ocypete 

 rubra is or is not the transitory state of a more perfect animal, 

 I do not know. But I am sure that the Leptus autumnalis lives 

 and dies on the skin where it has selected its dwelling-place, 

 a living dwelling-place. 



It is impossible to be too circumspect in the determination 

 of certain genera and species, whose different phases of exist- 

 ence are little known, and which seem, so far as their charac- 

 teristics are concerned, to participate of several orders or 



